Advanced superconducting gradiometers for mine detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clem, Ted R.

1996-05-01

Sensors incorporating superconducting quantum interference devices provide the greatest sensitivity for magnetic anomaly detection available with current technology. During the 1980s, the Coastal Systems Station (CSS) developed a superconducting magnetic gradiometer capable of operation outside of the laboratory environment. With this sensor, the CSS was able to demonstrate buried mine detection for the U.S. Navy. Subsequently, the sensor was incorporated into a multisensor suite onboard an underwater towed vehicle to provide a robust mine hunting capability for the Magnetic and Acoustic Detection of Mines Project. This sensor using thin film niobium and a new liquid helium cooling concept was developed to provide significant increases in sensitivity and detection range. In the late 1980s, a new class of `high- Tc' superconductor were discovered with critical temperatures above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77 K). This advance has opened up new opportunities for mine reconnaissance and hunting, especially for operation onboard small unmanned underwater vehicles. A high-Tc sensor concept using liquid nitrogen refrigeration has been developed and a test article of that concept is currently being evaluated for its applicability to mobile operation. The design principles for the two new sensor approaches and the results of their evaluations will be described. Finally, the implications of these advances to mine reconnaissance and hunting will be discussed.

Data Mining and Predictive Modeling in Institutional Advancement: How Ten Schools Found Success. Technical Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luperchio, Dan

2009-01-01

This technical report, produced in partnership by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and SPSS Inc., explores the promise of data mining alumni records at educational institutions. Working with individual alumni records from The Johns Hopkins Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, a predictive regression model is…

A life-cycle description of underground coal mining

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lavin, M. L.; Borden, C. S.; Duda, J. R.

1978-01-01

An initial effort to relate the major technological and economic variables which impact conventional underground coal mining systems, in order to help identify promising areas for advanced mining technology is described. The point of departure is a series of investment analyses published by the United States Bureau of Mines, which provide both the analytical framework and guidance on a choice of variables.

New Equipment for Mine Safety

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1983-01-01

While planning for the space shuttle, Bendix Corporation with the help of Johnson Space Center expanded the anthropometric data base for aerospace and nonaerospace use in clothing, workplace, etc. The result was the Anthropometric Source Book which was later utilized by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in designing advanced mining systems. The book was particularly valuable in the design of a remote cab used in mining.

33 CFR 334.260 - York River, Va.; naval restricted areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

....; naval restricted areas. (a) The areas—(1) Naval mine service-testing area (prohibited). A rectangular...; and thence along the shore line to the point of beginning. (2) Naval mine service-testing area... case of emergency. Naval authorities are required to publish advance notice of mine-laying and/or...

33 CFR 334.260 - York River, Va.; naval restricted areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

....; naval restricted areas. (a) The areas—(1) Naval mine service-testing area (prohibited). A rectangular...; and thence along the shore line to the point of beginning. (2) Naval mine service-testing area... case of emergency. Naval authorities are required to publish advance notice of mine-laying and/or...

Analyzing Student Inquiry Data Using Process Discovery and Sequence Classification

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emond, Bruno; Buffett, Scott

2015-01-01

This paper reports on results of applying process discovery mining and sequence classification mining techniques to a data set of semi-structured learning activities. The main research objective is to advance educational data mining to model and support self-regulated learning in heterogeneous environments of learning content, activities, and…

Research Design Becomes Research Reality: Colorado School of Mines Implements Research Methodology for the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education. Research Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loshbaugh, Heidi; Streveler, Ruth; Breaux, Kimberley

2007-01-01

The Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education was founded in 2003 with five collaborating institutions. A multi-institutional, multi-year grant offers many opportunities for the demands of reality to interfere with design goals. In particular, at Colorado School of Mines (CSM) student demographics required adjustment of the original APS…

Cutter-loader apparatus having overhung shearer drum

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Groger, H.; Harms, E.E.

1984-05-01

A longwall mining machine includes a drum cutter-loader and face conveyor wherein the drum cutter-loader is overhung and is supported by a support arm adjacent to the mine face. Nozzles direct high pressure liquid jets against the forward edge of the support arm to cut away the mining face and permit the face side support arm to advance as the mining machine advances. In one embodiment the nozzles are provided along an inclined cutting edge at the forward end of the support arm. Such nozzles may be fixed or oscillating. In an alternative embodiment the nozzles are provided in themore » cylindrical edge zone of the shearer drum and direct the high pressure fluid jets against the cutter edge at the forward end of the support arm.« less

Mechanism of Rock Burst Occurrence in Specially Thick Coal Seam with Rock Parting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jian-chao; Jiang, Fu-xing; Meng, Xiang-jun; Wang, Xu-you; Zhu, Si-tao; Feng, Yu

2016-05-01

Specially thick coal seam with complex construction, such as rock parting and alternative soft and hard coal, is called specially thick coal seam with rock parting (STCSRP), which easily leads to rock burst during mining. Based on the stress distribution of rock parting zone, this study investigated the mechanism, engineering discriminant conditions, prevention methods, and risk evaluation method of rock burst occurrence in STCSRP through setting up a mechanical model. The main conclusions of this study are as follows. (1) When the mining face moves closer to the rock parting zone, the original non-uniform stress of the rock parting zone and the advancing stress of the mining face are combined to intensify gradually the shearing action of coal near the mining face. When the shearing action reaches a certain degree, rock burst easily occurs near the mining face. (2) Rock burst occurrence in STCSRP is positively associated with mining depth, advancing stress concentration factor of the mining face, thickness of rock parting, bursting liability of coal, thickness ratio of rock parting to coal seam, and difference of elastic modulus between rock parting and coal, whereas negatively associated with shear strength. (3) Technologies of large-diameter drilling, coal seam water injection, and deep hole blasting can reduce advancing stress concentration factor, thickness of rock parting, and difference of elastic modulus between rock parting and coal to lower the risk of rock burst in STCSRP. (4) The research result was applied to evaluate and control the risk of rock burst occurrence in STCSRP.

Diversification of the Higher Mining Education Financing in Globalization Era

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frolova, Victoria; Dolina, Olga; Shpil'kina, Tatyana

2017-11-01

In the current conditions of global competition, the development of new mining technologies, the requirements to labor resources, their skills and creative potential are increasing. The tasks facing the mining industry cannot be solved without highly qualified personnel, especially managers, engineers and technicians, specialists who possess the knowledge and competences necessary for the development of science and technology of mining, and ensuring mining industrial safety. The authors analyze personnel problems and financing of mining higher education, conclude that there is a need to develop social partnership and diversify the sources of funding for training, advanced training and retraining of personnel for mining and processing of solid mineral deposits.

Exploring the Integration of Data Mining and Data Visualization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Yi

2011-01-01

Due to the rapid advances in computing and sensing technologies, enormous amounts of data are being generated everyday in various applications. The integration of data mining and data visualization has been widely used to analyze these massive and complex data sets to discover hidden patterns. For both data mining and visualization to be…

Concentrated Brine Treatment using New Energy in Coal Mine Evaporation Ponds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Ting; Li, Jingfeng

2017-12-01

Recently, more and more coal mine water is being advanced treated and reused in China. The concentrated brine that results from advanced treatment methods can only be evaporated in an evaporation pond. Because of limited treatment capabilities and winter freezing, evaporation ponds often overflow, causing environment contamination. In this paper, based on analysis of brine water quality and economic-technical feasibility, we present a suitable treatment method for brine in evaporation ponds as electrodialysis using solar energy. In addition, we propose a new system to treat brine in coal mine evaporation ponds, which is powered by solar and wind. The operating efficiency of this treatment system proposed in this paper can meet the concentrated brine treatment demands in most coal mines in western mining areas of China and it places the photovoltaic power generation plates on the surface of the evaporation pond on a fixed floating island, which reduces any risk associated with land acquisition. This system can enhance brine treatment efficiency, requires a reduced evaporation pond area, increases the utilization of coal mine water, and minimizes the risk of environment contamination.

An Overview of Advanced Concepts for Launch

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-02-09

Loads, System. --- Space Platforms Unfeasible. --- Space Elevator Materials, O, µmeteoroids, weather, vibrations.. Asteroid Mining Breakthrough...Unfeasible. --- Space Elevator Materials, O, µmeteoroids, weather, vibrations.. Asteroid Mining Breakthrough Physics No known feasible concepts

Regional price targets appropriate for advanced coal extraction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Terasawa, K. L.; Whipple, D. M.

1980-01-01

A methodology is presented for predicting coal prices in regional markets for the target time frames 1985 and 2000 that could subsequently be used to guide the development of an advanced coal extraction system. The model constructed is a supply and demand model that focuses on underground mining since the advanced technology is expected to be developed for these reserves by the target years. Coal reserve data and the cost of operating a mine are used to obtain the minimum acceptable selling price that would induce the producer to bring the mine into production. Based on this information, market supply curves can be generated. Demand by region is calculated based on an EEA methodology that emphasizes demand by electric utilities and demand by industry. The demand and supply curves are then used to obtain the price targets. The results show a growth in the size of the markets for compliance and low sulphur coal regions. A significant rise in the real price of coal is not expected even by the year 2000. The model predicts heavy reliance on mines with thick seams, larger block size and deep overburden.

Kelly Eurek | NREL

Science.gov Websites

School of Mines, Golden, CO, 2009 Prior Work Experience Teaching Assistant, Colorado School of Mines (CSM . NREL/TP-6A20-63972. Sullivan, P., K. Eurek, and R. Margolis. 2014. Advanced Methods for Incorporating

78 FR 52967 - Notice of Intent To Initiate Public Scoping and Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-27

... acres (4,287 acres would be disturbed by the mining operations, highwall reduction, soil storage, scoria... WECo currently uses in other permitted areas of the Rosebud Mine. In advance of each mining pass, soil... expose the coal seam. Overburden stockpiles, soil stockpiles, and scoria pits would be developed adjacent...

A Quantitative Analysis of Organizational Factors That Relate to Data Mining Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huebner, Richard A.

2017-01-01

The ubiquity of data in various forms has fueled the need for advanced data-mining techniques within organizations. The advent of data mining methods used to uncover hidden nuggets of information buried within large data sets has also fueled the need for determining how these unique projects can be successful. There are many challenges associated…

Economic baselines for current underground coal mining technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mabe, W. B.

1979-01-01

The cost of mining coal using a room pillar mining method with continuous miner and a longwall mining system was calculated. Costs were calculated for the years 1975 and 2000 time periods and are to be used as economic standards against which advanced mining concepts and systems will be compared. Some assumptions were changed and some internal model stored data was altered from the original calculations procedure chosen, to obtain a result that more closely represented what was considered to be a standard mine. Coal seam thicknesses were varied from one and one-half feet to eight feet to obtain the cost of mining coal over a wide range. Geologic conditions were selected that had a minimum impact on the mining productivity.

77 FR 61723 - Felgates Creek and Indian Field Creek Along the York River in Yorktown, VA; Restricted Area

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-11

.... 334.260 York River, Va.; naval restricted areas. (a) The areas--(1) Naval mine service-testing area... thence along the shore line to the point of beginning. (2) Naval mine service-testing area (restricted... delay, except in case of emergency. Naval authorities are required to publish advance notice of mine...

Magnetic sensor technology for detecting mines, UXO, and other concealed security threats

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Czipott, Peter V.; Iwanowski, Mark D.

1997-01-01

Magnetic sensors have been the sensor of choice in the detection and classification of buried mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), both on land and underwater, Quantum Magnetics (QM), together with its research partner IBM, have developed a variety of advanced, very high sensitivity superconducting and room temperature magnetic sensors to meet military needs. This work has led to the development and utilization of a three-sensor gradiometer (TSG) patented by IBM, which cannot only detect, but also localize mines and ordnance. QM is also working with IBM and the U.S. Navy to develop an advanced superconducting gradiometer for buried underwater mine detection. The ability to both detect and classify buried non-metallic mines is virtually impossible with existing magnetic sensors. To solve this problem, Quantum Magnetics, building on work of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), is pioneering work in the development of quadrupole resonance (QR) methods which can be used to detect the explosive material directly. Based on recent laboratory work done at QM and previous work done in the U.S., Russia and the United Kingdom, we are confident that QR can be effectively applied to the non-metallic mine identification problem.

A Review of Recent Advancement in Integrating Omics Data with Literature Mining towards Biomedical Discoveries

PubMed Central

Raja, Kalpana; Patrick, Matthew; Gao, Yilin; Madu, Desmond; Yang, Yuyang

2017-01-01

In the past decade, the volume of “omics” data generated by the different high-throughput technologies has expanded exponentially. The managing, storing, and analyzing of this big data have been a great challenge for the researchers, especially when moving towards the goal of generating testable data-driven hypotheses, which has been the promise of the high-throughput experimental techniques. Different bioinformatics approaches have been developed to streamline the downstream analyzes by providing independent information to interpret and provide biological inference. Text mining (also known as literature mining) is one of the commonly used approaches for automated generation of biological knowledge from the huge number of published articles. In this review paper, we discuss the recent advancement in approaches that integrate results from omics data and information generated from text mining approaches to uncover novel biomedical information. PMID:28331849

Evaluation of ADAM/1 model for advanced coal extraction concepts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deshpande, G. K.; Gangal, M. D.

1982-01-01

Several existing computer programs for estimating life cycle cost of mining systems were evaluated. A commercially available program, ADAM/1 was found to be satisfactory in relation to the needs of the advanced coal extraction project. Two test cases were run to confirm the ability of the program to handle nonconventional mining equipment and procedures. The results were satisfactory. The model, therefore, is recommended to the project team for evaluation of their conceptual designs.

Data Mining and Homeland Security: An Overview

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-01-27

which government agencies should use and mix commercial data with government data, whether data sources are being used for purposes other than those...example, a hardware store may compare their customers’ tool purchases with home ownership, type of CRS-2 3 John Makulowich, “ Government Data Mining...cleaning, data integration, data selection, data transformation , (data mining), pattern evaluation, and knowledge presentation.4 A number of advances in

Application of Modern Tools and Techniques for Mine Safety & Disaster Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Dheeraj

2016-04-01

The implementation of novel systems and adoption of improvised equipment in mines help mining companies in two important ways: enhanced mine productivity and improved worker safety. There is a substantial need for adoption of state-of-the-art automation technologies in the mines to ensure the safety and to protect health of mine workers. With the advent of new autonomous equipment used in the mine, the inefficiencies are reduced by limiting human inconsistencies and error. The desired increase in productivity at a mine can sometimes be achieved by changing only a few simple variables. Significant developments have been made in the areas of surface and underground communication, robotics, smart sensors, tracking systems, mine gas monitoring systems and ground movements etc. Advancement in information technology in the form of internet, GIS, remote sensing, satellite communication, etc. have proved to be important tools for hazard reduction and disaster management. This paper is mainly focused on issues pertaining to mine safety and disaster management and some of the recent innovations in the mine automations that could be deployed in mines for safe mining operations and for avoiding any unforeseen mine disaster.

Automatic mine detection based on multiple features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Ssu-Hsin; Gandhe, Avinash; Witten, Thomas R.; Mehra, Raman K.

2000-08-01

Recent research sponsored by the Army, Navy and DARPA has significantly advanced the sensor technologies for mine detection. Several innovative sensor systems have been developed and prototypes were built to investigate their performance in practice. Most of the research has been focused on hardware design. However, in order for the systems to be in wide use instead of in limited use by a small group of well-trained experts, an automatic process for mine detection is needed to make the final decision process on mine vs. no mine easier and more straightforward. In this paper, we describe an automatic mine detection process consisting of three stage, (1) signal enhancement, (2) pixel-level mine detection, and (3) object-level mine detection. The final output of the system is a confidence measure that quantifies the presence of a mine. The resulting system was applied to real data collected using radar and acoustic technologies.

DEVELOPMENT OF SRB TREATMENT SYSTEMS FOR ACID MINE DRAINAGE

EPA Science Inventory

Over the past decade, significant advances have been made in the development of sulfate- reducing bacteria (SRB) technology to treat acid mine drainage (AMD), Bench-scale testing, field demonstrations, and engineered applications of SRBs for the treatment of AMD will be presented...

Extracting semantically enriched events from biomedical literature

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Research into event-based text mining from the biomedical literature has been growing in popularity to facilitate the development of advanced biomedical text mining systems. Such technology permits advanced search, which goes beyond document or sentence-based retrieval. However, existing event-based systems typically ignore additional information within the textual context of events that can determine, amongst other things, whether an event represents a fact, hypothesis, experimental result or analysis of results, whether it describes new or previously reported knowledge, and whether it is speculated or negated. We refer to such contextual information as meta-knowledge. The automatic recognition of such information can permit the training of systems allowing finer-grained searching of events according to the meta-knowledge that is associated with them. Results Based on a corpus of 1,000 MEDLINE abstracts, fully manually annotated with both events and associated meta-knowledge, we have constructed a machine learning-based system that automatically assigns meta-knowledge information to events. This system has been integrated into EventMine, a state-of-the-art event extraction system, in order to create a more advanced system (EventMine-MK) that not only extracts events from text automatically, but also assigns five different types of meta-knowledge to these events. The meta-knowledge assignment module of EventMine-MK performs with macro-averaged F-scores in the range of 57-87% on the BioNLP’09 Shared Task corpus. EventMine-MK has been evaluated on the BioNLP’09 Shared Task subtask of detecting negated and speculated events. Our results show that EventMine-MK can outperform other state-of-the-art systems that participated in this task. Conclusions We have constructed the first practical system that extracts both events and associated, detailed meta-knowledge information from biomedical literature. The automatically assigned meta-knowledge information can be used to refine search systems, in order to provide an extra search layer beyond entities and assertions, dealing with phenomena such as rhetorical intent, speculations, contradictions and negations. This finer grained search functionality can assist in several important tasks, e.g., database curation (by locating new experimental knowledge) and pathway enrichment (by providing information for inference). To allow easy integration into text mining systems, EventMine-MK is provided as a UIMA component that can be used in the interoperable text mining infrastructure, U-Compare. PMID:22621266

Extracting semantically enriched events from biomedical literature.

PubMed

Miwa, Makoto; Thompson, Paul; McNaught, John; Kell, Douglas B; Ananiadou, Sophia

2012-05-23

Research into event-based text mining from the biomedical literature has been growing in popularity to facilitate the development of advanced biomedical text mining systems. Such technology permits advanced search, which goes beyond document or sentence-based retrieval. However, existing event-based systems typically ignore additional information within the textual context of events that can determine, amongst other things, whether an event represents a fact, hypothesis, experimental result or analysis of results, whether it describes new or previously reported knowledge, and whether it is speculated or negated. We refer to such contextual information as meta-knowledge. The automatic recognition of such information can permit the training of systems allowing finer-grained searching of events according to the meta-knowledge that is associated with them. Based on a corpus of 1,000 MEDLINE abstracts, fully manually annotated with both events and associated meta-knowledge, we have constructed a machine learning-based system that automatically assigns meta-knowledge information to events. This system has been integrated into EventMine, a state-of-the-art event extraction system, in order to create a more advanced system (EventMine-MK) that not only extracts events from text automatically, but also assigns five different types of meta-knowledge to these events. The meta-knowledge assignment module of EventMine-MK performs with macro-averaged F-scores in the range of 57-87% on the BioNLP'09 Shared Task corpus. EventMine-MK has been evaluated on the BioNLP'09 Shared Task subtask of detecting negated and speculated events. Our results show that EventMine-MK can outperform other state-of-the-art systems that participated in this task. We have constructed the first practical system that extracts both events and associated, detailed meta-knowledge information from biomedical literature. The automatically assigned meta-knowledge information can be used to refine search systems, in order to provide an extra search layer beyond entities and assertions, dealing with phenomena such as rhetorical intent, speculations, contradictions and negations. This finer grained search functionality can assist in several important tasks, e.g., database curation (by locating new experimental knowledge) and pathway enrichment (by providing information for inference). To allow easy integration into text mining systems, EventMine-MK is provided as a UIMA component that can be used in the interoperable text mining infrastructure, U-Compare.

Geologic considerations in underground coal mining system design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Camilli, F. A.; Maynard, D. P.; Mangolds, A.; Harris, J.

1981-01-01

Geologic characteristics of coal resources which may impact new extraction technologies are identified and described to aid system designers and planners in their task of designing advanced coal extraction systems for the central Appalachian region. These geologic conditions are then organized into a matrix identified as the baseline mine concept. A sample region, eastern Kentucy is analyzed using both the developed baseline mine concept and the traditional geologic investigative approach.

Assessment of Characteristics and Remedial Alternatives for Abandoned Mine Drainage: Case Study at Staple Bend Tunnel Unit of Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, 2004

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-01-01

water quality-Northern Appalachian Basin, In Brady, K. B. C., Smith, M. W., and Schueck, J. H., (eds.), Coal Mine Drainage Prediction and Pollution ...United States: Water , Air, and Soil Pollution , v. 50, p. 91-107. Hyman, D. M., and Watzlaf, G. R., 1997, Metals and other components of coal mine...Advances in the hydrochemistry and microbiology of acid mine waters : International Geology Review, v. 42, p. 499-515. Nordstrom, D. K., and Alpers, C

PRB mines mature

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Buchsbaum, L.

2007-08-15

Already seeing the results of reclamation efforts, America's largest surface mines advance as engineers prepare for the future. 30 years after the signing of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act by Jimmy Carter, western strip mines in the USA, especially in the Powder River Basin, are producing more coal than ever. The article describes the construction and installation of a $38.5 million near-pit crusher and overland belt conveyor system at Foundation Coal West's (FCW) Belle Ayr surface mine in Wyoming, one of the earliest PRB mines. It goes on to describe the development by Rio Tinto of an elkmore » conservatory, the Rochelle Hill Conservation Easement, on reclaimed land at Jacobs Ranch, adjacent to the Rochelle Hills. 4 photos.« less

A Closed Network Queue Model of Underground Coal Mining Production, Failure, and Repair

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lohman, G. M.

1978-01-01

Underground coal mining system production, failures, and repair cycles were mathematically modeled as a closed network of two queues in series. The model was designed to better understand the technological constraints on availability of current underground mining systems, and to develop guidelines for estimating the availability of advanced mining systems and their associated needs for spares as well as production and maintenance personnel. It was found that: mine performance is theoretically limited by the maintainability ratio, significant gains in availability appear possible by means of small improvements in the time between failures the number of crews and sections should be properly balanced for any given maintainability ratio, and main haulage systems closest to the mine mouth require the most attention to reliability.

Microbial genome mining for accelerated natural products discovery: is a renaissance in the making?

PubMed

Bachmann, Brian O; Van Lanen, Steven G; Baltz, Richard H

2014-02-01

Microbial genome mining is a rapidly developing approach to discover new and novel secondary metabolites for drug discovery. Many advances have been made in the past decade to facilitate genome mining, and these are reviewed in this Special Issue of the Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology. In this Introductory Review, we discuss the concept of genome mining and why it is important for the revitalization of natural product discovery; what microbes show the most promise for focused genome mining; how microbial genomes can be mined; how genome mining can be leveraged with other technologies; how progress on genome mining can be accelerated; and who should fund future progress in this promising field. We direct interested readers to more focused reviews on the individual topics in this Special Issue for more detailed summaries on the current state-of-the-art.

30 CFR 57.4330 - Surface firefighting, evacuation, and rescue procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Fire Prevention and Control Firefighting Procedures/alarms/drills § 57.4330 Surface... coordinated in advance with available firefighting organizations. (b) Fire alarm procedures or systems shall...

A methodology for the environmental assessment of advanced coal extraction systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, P. J.; Hutchinson, C. F.; Makihara, J.; Evensizer, J.

1980-01-01

Procedures developed to identify and assess potential environment impacts of advanced mining technology as it moves from a generic concept to a more systems definition are described. Two levels of assessment are defined in terms of the design stage of the technology being evaluated. The first level of analysis is appropriate to a conceptual design. At this level it is assumed that each mining process has known and potential environmental impacts that are generic to each mining activity. By using this assumption, potential environmental impacts can be identified for new mining systems. When two or more systems have been assessed, they can be evaluated comparing potential environmental impacts. At the preliminary stage of design, a systems performance can be assessed again with more precision. At this level of systems definition, potential environmental impacts can be analyzed and their significane determined in a manner to facilitate comparisons between systems. At each level of analysis, suggestions calculated to help the designer mitigate potentially harmful impacts are provided.

Overview of bureau research directed towards surface powered haulage safety

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

May, J.P.; Aldinger, J.A.

1995-12-31

Surface mining operations, including mills and preparation plants, employ over 260,000 people. This represents a significant contribution to our nation`s economy and an important source of skilled and well-paying jobs. As mine production has shifted from underground to surface, and with continuing advances in underground mine safety, surface mining has unfortunately become the leader in mine fatalities. In 1994 surface mining accidents accounted for 49% of all mine fatalities, followed by underground mining with 37% and mills and preparation plants with 14%. The U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) has targeted surface mining as an important research priority to reduce themore » social and economic costs associated with fatalities and lost-work-time injuries. USBM safety research focuses on the development of technologies that can enhance productivity and reduce mining costs through a reduction in the number and severity of mining accidents. This report summarizes a number of completed and ongoing research programs directed towards surface powered haulage--the single largest category of fatalities in surface mining and a major cause of lost workdays. Research products designed for industry are highlighted and future USBM surface mining safety research is discussed.« less

Mining Critical Metals and Elements from Seawater: Opportunities and Challenges.

PubMed

Diallo, Mamadou S; Kotte, Madhusudhana Rao; Cho, Manki

2015-08-18

The availability and sustainable supply of technology metals and valuable elements is critical to the global economy. There is a growing realization that the development and deployment of the clean energy technologies and sustainable products and manufacturing industries of the 21st century will require large amounts of critical metals and valuable elements including rare-earth elements (REEs), platinum group metals (PGMs), lithium, copper, cobalt, silver, and gold. Advances in industrial ecology, water purification, and resource recovery have established that seawater is an important and largely untapped source of technology metals and valuable elements. This feature article discusses the opportunities and challenges of mining critical metals and elements from seawater. We highlight recent advances and provide an outlook of the future of metal mining and resource recovery from seawater.

Runtime support for parallelizing data mining algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Ruoming; Agrawal, Gagan

2002-03-01

With recent technological advances, shared memory parallel machines have become more scalable, and offer large main memories and high bus bandwidths. They are emerging as good platforms for data warehousing and data mining. In this paper, we focus on shared memory parallelization of data mining algorithms. We have developed a series of techniques for parallelization of data mining algorithms, including full replication, full locking, fixed locking, optimized full locking, and cache-sensitive locking. Unlike previous work on shared memory parallelization of specific data mining algorithms, all of our techniques apply to a large number of common data mining algorithms. In addition, we propose a reduction-object based interface for specifying a data mining algorithm. We show how our runtime system can apply any of the technique we have developed starting from a common specification of the algorithm.

Integration of MOOCs in Advanced Mining Training Programmes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saveleva, Irina; Greenwald, Oksana; Kolomiets, Svetlana; Medvedeva, Elena

2017-11-01

The paper covers the concept of innovative approaches in education based on incorporating MOOCs options into traditional classroom. It takes a look at the ways higher education instructors working with the mining engineers enrolled in advanced training programmes can brighten, upgrade and facilitate the learning process. The shift of higher education from in-class to online format has changed the learning environment and the methods of teaching including professional retraining courses. In addition, the need of mining companies for managers of a new kind obligates high school retraining centres rapidly move towards the 21st century skill framework. One of widely recognized innovations in the sphere of e-learning is MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that can be used as an effective teaching tool for organizing professional training of managing staff of mining companies within the walls of a university. The authors share their instructional experience and show the benefits of introducing MOOCs options at the courses designed for retraining mining engineers and senior managers of coal enterprises. Though in recent researches the pedagogical value of MOOCs is highly questioned and even negated this invention of the 21st century can become an essential and truly helpful instrument in the hands of educators.

Semi autonomous mine detection system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Douglas Few; Roelof Versteeg; Herman Herman

2010-04-01

CMMAD is a risk reduction effort for the AMDS program. As part of CMMAD, multiple instances of semi autonomous robotic mine detection systems were created. Each instance consists of a robotic vehicle equipped with sensors required for navigation and marking, a countermine sensors and a number of integrated software packages which provide for real time processing of the countermine sensor data as well as integrated control of the robotic vehicle, the sensor actuator and the sensor. These systems were used to investigate critical interest functions (CIF) related to countermine robotic systems. To address the autonomy CIF, the INL developed RIKmore » was extended to allow for interaction with a mine sensor processing code (MSPC). In limited field testing this system performed well in detecting, marking and avoiding both AT and AP mines. Based on the results of the CMMAD investigation we conclude that autonomous robotic mine detection is feasible. In addition, CMMAD contributed critical technical advances with regard to sensing, data processing and sensor manipulation, which will advance the performance of future fieldable systems. As a result, no substantial technical barriers exist which preclude – from an autonomous robotic perspective – the rapid development and deployment of fieldable systems.« less

A Demonstration of Regression False Positive Selection in Data Mining

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinder, Jonathan P.

2014-01-01

Business analytics courses, such as marketing research, data mining, forecasting, and advanced financial modeling, have substantial predictive modeling components. The predictive modeling in these courses requires students to estimate and test many linear regressions. As a result, false positive variable selection ("type I errors") is…

Implications of Emerging Data Mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulathuramaiyer, Narayanan; Maurer, Hermann

Data Mining describes a technology that discovers non-trivial hidden patterns in a large collection of data. Although this technology has a tremendous impact on our lives, the invaluable contributions of this invisible technology often go unnoticed. This paper discusses advances in data mining while focusing on the emerging data mining capability. Such data mining applications perform multidimensional mining on a wide variety of heterogeneous data sources, providing solutions to many unresolved problems. This paper also highlights the advantages and disadvantages arising from the ever-expanding scope of data mining. Data Mining augments human intelligence by equipping us with a wealth of knowledge and by empowering us to perform our daily tasks better. As the mining scope and capacity increases, users and organizations become more willing to compromise privacy. The huge data stores of the ‚master miners` allow them to gain deep insights into individual lifestyles and their social and behavioural patterns. Data integration and analysis capability of combining business and financial trends together with the ability to deterministically track market changes will drastically affect our lives.

Study of application of ERTS-A imagery to fracture-related mine safety hazards in the coal mining industry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wier, C. E.; Wobber, F. J. (Principal Investigator); Russell, O. R.; Amato, R. V.; Leshendok, T.

1973-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. The Kings Station Mine in Gibson County, Indiana has experienced considerable roof fall problems. Detailed fracture mapping of the mine area was done with ERTS-1 and aircraft imagery, and a prediction map of roof problem areas was produced in advance of a visit. The visit to the mine and discussions with the operator indicated that of four zones mapped as potential problem areas, three coincided with areas of excessive roof fall. This positive correlation of 75% lends confidence to the validity of the technique being applied in the investigation. The mine officials expressed an interest in the project and are anxious to see the final product maps which are forthcoming.

30 CFR 75.388 - Boreholes in advance of mining.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... more than 1.0 percent methane, less than 19.5 percent oxygen, or harmful concentrations of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or other explosive, harmful or noxious gases; (2) Tests for methane, oxygen... and the mine workings; (3) The concentrations of methane, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide...

30 CFR 75.388 - Boreholes in advance of mining.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... more than 1.0 percent methane, less than 19.5 percent oxygen, or harmful concentrations of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or other explosive, harmful or noxious gases; (2) Tests for methane, oxygen... and the mine workings; (3) The concentrations of methane, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide...

30 CFR 75.388 - Boreholes in advance of mining.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... more than 1.0 percent methane, less than 19.5 percent oxygen, or harmful concentrations of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or other explosive, harmful or noxious gases; (2) Tests for methane, oxygen... and the mine workings; (3) The concentrations of methane, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide...

30 CFR 75.388 - Boreholes in advance of mining.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... more than 1.0 percent methane, less than 19.5 percent oxygen, or harmful concentrations of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or other explosive, harmful or noxious gases; (2) Tests for methane, oxygen... and the mine workings; (3) The concentrations of methane, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide...

30 CFR 75.388 - Boreholes in advance of mining.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... more than 1.0 percent methane, less than 19.5 percent oxygen, or harmful concentrations of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or other explosive, harmful or noxious gases; (2) Tests for methane, oxygen... and the mine workings; (3) The concentrations of methane, oxygen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide...

All Glory Is Fleeting: Insights from the Second Lebanon War

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-01-01

Israel border north- ward were heavily mined and covered by antitank weapons by fight- ers well trained in how best to engage Israeli military...in the end, destroy 14 Israeli tanks; mines would ravage another six.14 Even the IDF’s most advanced model, the Merkava 4, proved vulnerable. The...Approximately “50% of Israeli casualties can be attributed to anti-tank missiles, 25% to small arms and mines , around 10% to friendly fire, 10% to

Advanced Concepts: Enabling Future AF Missions Through the Discovery and Demonstration of Emerging Revolutionary Technologies

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-03

µmeteoroids, weather, vibrations... Asteroid Mining Breakthrough Physics No known feasible concepts. --- Concept NTF NMS NCA Primary Challenges for Launch...weather, vibrations... Asteroid Mining Breakthrough Physics No known feasible concepts. --- 8 2.2 Microwave Augmentation of Solid Rocket Motors16,17 As...Astronautica, Vol. 52, 1, pp. 49-75, 30 May, 2002. 7. Sonter, M.J., “The Technical and Economic Feasibility of Mining the Near-Earth Asteroids ,” Acta

Acoustic Communications Considerations for Collaborative Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-01

combat. The United States experienced this problem first hand on April 14, 1988, when the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) struck a mine in the Persian...Strait of Hormuz where the USS Samuel B. Roberts was operating. The low cost and advancing technology of naval mines makes them particularly well...access and ensure the free flow of maritime trade in the global commons. The present means of mine countermeasures largely reside on surface ships and

Solar Data Mining at Georgia State University

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Angryk, R.; Martens, P. C.; Schuh, M.; Aydin, B.; Kempton, D.; Banda, J.; Ma, R.; Naduvil-Vadukootu, S.; Akkineni, V.; Küçük, A.; Filali Boubrahimi, S.; Hamdi, S. M.

2016-12-01

In this talk we give an overview of research projects related to solar data analysis that are conducted at Georgia State University. We will provide update on multiple advances made by our research team on the analysis of image parameters, spatio-temporal patterns mining, temporal data analysis and our experiences with big, heterogeneous solar data visualization, analysis, processing and storage. We will talk about up-to-date data mining methodologies, and their importance for big data-driven solar physics research.

Text Mining for Adverse Drug Events: the Promise, Challenges, and State of the Art

PubMed Central

Harpaz, Rave; Callahan, Alison; Tamang, Suzanne; Low, Yen; Odgers, David; Finlayson, Sam; Jung, Kenneth; LePendu, Paea; Shah, Nigam H.

2014-01-01

Text mining is the computational process of extracting meaningful information from large amounts of unstructured text. Text mining is emerging as a tool to leverage underutilized data sources that can improve pharmacovigilance, including the objective of adverse drug event detection and assessment. This article provides an overview of recent advances in pharmacovigilance driven by the application of text mining, and discusses several data sources—such as biomedical literature, clinical narratives, product labeling, social media, and Web search logs—that are amenable to text-mining for pharmacovigilance. Given the state of the art, it appears text mining can be applied to extract useful ADE-related information from multiple textual sources. Nonetheless, further research is required to address remaining technical challenges associated with the text mining methodologies, and to conclusively determine the relative contribution of each textual source to improving pharmacovigilance. PMID:25151493

Mapping Environmental Contaminants at Ray Mine, AZ

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McCubbin, Ian; Lang, Harold

2000-01-01

Airborne Visible and InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) data was collected over Ray Mine as part of a demonstration project for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Advanced Measurement Initiative (AMI). The overall goal of AMI is to accelerate adoption and application of advanced measurement technologies for cost effective environmental monitoring. The site was selected to demonstrate the benefit to EPA in using advanced remote sensing technologies for the detection of environmental contaminants due to the mineral extraction industry. The role of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in this pilot study is to provide data as well as performing calibration, data analysis, and validation of the AVIRIS results. EPA is also interested in developing protocols that use commercial software to perform such work on other high priority EPA sites. Reflectance retrieval was performed using outputs generated by the MODTRAN radiative transfer model and field spectra collected for the purpose of calibration. We are presenting advanced applications of the ENVI software package using n-Dimensional Partial Unmixing to identify image-derived endmembers that best match target materials reference spectra from multiple spectral libraries. Upon identification of the image endmembers the Mixture Tuned Match Filter algorithm was applied to map the endmembers within each scene. Using this technique it was possible to map four different mineral classes that are associated with mine generated acid waste.

Stress measurements in Kuzbass mines using photoelastic sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schastlivtsev, E.

1996-06-01

The basic amount of known measurements of stressed state in front of development workings' faces was carried out with the use of hydraulic sensors, which give an information about principal stresses without their separation. Besides, the availability of pipe-line and cumbersome equipment make more complicated and sometimes impossible the process of stresses' measurements during works in mining process. In our opinion, the borehole and photoelastic sensors at high degree satisfy with the conditions of stresses' measurements in front of mining workings' faces. The principal idea of the method is in the usage of proper face advancing aiming the estimation of the field stresses in its neighborhood. Borehole and photoelastic sensors, fixed in the advanced boreholes, drilled from the active face react to the field change of stresses or deformation caused by working face advancing. While obtaining this information we may judge about the distribution of additional stresses in rock of face's neighborhood and concentration of stresses in front of face. The usage of cavity (because of face advancing) in the quality of disturbing influence in combination with the properties of ring photoelastic sensor to given an information about magnitude and direction of secondary principle stresses, permits us to obtain rather a simple and not labor consuming method of investigation of field additional stresses in the working's face neighborhood.

Evolution of United States Military Landmine Doctrine and Employment

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-12

landmine descends is that of devices which ancient armies used to hinder and wound the enemy. This was a diverse group of devices which could make...factories in Egypt once it had fallen to Allied advances, the use of enemy mines was still commonplace. The British mine factories in Egypt also had no

Using Syntactic Patterns to Enhance Text Analytics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyer, Bradley B.

2017-01-01

Large scale product and service reviews proliferate and are commonly found across the web. The ability to harvest, digest and analyze a large corpus of reviews from online websites is still however a difficult problem. This problem is referred to as "opinion mining." Opinion mining is an important area of research as advances in the…

CANFAR+Skytree: A Cloud Computing and Data Mining System for Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ball, N. M.

2013-10-01

This is a companion Focus Demonstration article to the CANFAR+Skytree poster (Ball 2013, this volume), demonstrating the usage of the Skytree machine learning software on the Canadian Advanced Network for Astronomical Research (CANFAR) cloud computing system. CANFAR+Skytree is the world's first cloud computing system for data mining in astronomy.

Preparation of ore blocks for mine leaching by reagent explosion injection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shevchenko, YuS

2017-02-01

The current drilling-and-blasting operations fail to prepare intact ore body underlying a production horizon for subsequent mining and leaching. It is found that the required preparation quality is possible by means of advanced implementation of ore body discontinuity and filling of the resultant system of joints with active leaching solutions.

77 FR 27086 - Petitions for Modification of Application of Existing Mandatory Safety Standards

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-08

... data collectors. Other testing and diagnostic equipment may be used if approved in advance by MSHA's.... (6) Except for time necessary to troubleshoot under actual mining conditions, coal production in the... protection afforded by the existing standard. Docket Number: M-2012-063-C. Petitioner: Sebree Mining, LLC...

Geochemistry of coalbed gas - a review

USGS Publications Warehouse

Clayton, J.L.

1998-01-01

Coals are both sources and reservoirs of large amounts of gas that has received increasing attention in recent years as a largely untapped potential energy resource. Coal mining operations, such as ventilation of coalbed gas from underground mines, release coalbed CH4 into the atmosphere, an important greehouse gas whose concentration in the atmosphere is increasing. Because of these energy and environmental issues, increased research attention has been focused on the geochemistry of coalbed gas in recent years. This paper presents a summary review of the main aspects of coalbed gas geochemistry and current research advances.Coals are both sources and reservoirs of large amounts of gas that has received increasing attention in recent years as a largely untapped potential energy resource. Coal mining operations, such as ventilation of coalbed gas from underground mines, release coalbed CH4 into the atmosphere, an important greenhouse gas whose concentration in the atmosphere is increasing. Because of these energy and environmental issues, increased research attention has been focused on the geochemistry of coalbed gas in recent years. This paper presents a summary review of the main aspects of coalbed gas geochemistry and current research advances.

Mining geology of the Pond Creek seam, Pikeville Formation, Middle Pennsylvanian, in part of the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Greb, S.F.; Popp, J.T.

1999-01-01

The Pond Creek seam is one of the leading producers of coal in the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field. The geologic factors that affect mining were investigated in several underground mines and categorized in terms of coal thickness, coal quality, and roof control. The limits of mining and thick coal are defined by splitting along the margin of the coal body. Within the coal body, local thickness variation occurs because of (1) leader coal benches filling narrow, elongated depressions, (2) rider coal benches coming near to or merging with the main bench, (3) overthrust coal benches being included along paleochannel margins, (4) cutouts occuring beneath paleochannels, and (5) very hard and unusual rock partings occuring along narrow, elongated trends. In the study area, the coal is mostly mined as a compliance product: sulfur contents are less than 1% and ash yields are less than 10%. Local increases in sulfur occur beneath sandstones, and are inferred to represent post-depositional migration of fluids through porous sands into the coal. Run-of-mine quality is also affected by several mine-roof conditions and trends of densely concentrated rock partings, which lead to increased in- and out-of-seam dilution and overall ash content of the mined coal. Roof control is largely a function of a heterolithic facies mosaic of coastal-estuarine origin, regional fracture trends, and unloading stress related to varying mine depth beneath the surface. Lateral variability of roof facies is the rule in most mines. The largest falls occur beneath modern valleys and parallel fractures, along paleochannel margins, within tidally affected 'stackrock,' and beneath rider coals. Shale spalling, kettlebottoms, and falls within other more isolated facies also occur. Many of the lithofacies, and falls related to bedding weaknesses within or between lithofacies, occur along northeast-southwest trends, which can be projected in advance of mining. Fracture-related falls occur independently of lithofacies trends along northwest-southeast trends, especially beneath modern valleys where overburden thickness decreases sharply. Differentiating roof falls related to these trends can aid in predicting roof quality in advance of mining.The Pond Creek-Lower Elkhorn seam has been an important exploration target because it typically has very low sulfur contents and ash yields. Geologic research in several large Pond Creek mines suggested variability in roof quality and coal thickness. Due to mine access, geologic problems encountered during mining are documented and described.

Text mining for adverse drug events: the promise, challenges, and state of the art.

PubMed

Harpaz, Rave; Callahan, Alison; Tamang, Suzanne; Low, Yen; Odgers, David; Finlayson, Sam; Jung, Kenneth; LePendu, Paea; Shah, Nigam H

2014-10-01

Text mining is the computational process of extracting meaningful information from large amounts of unstructured text. It is emerging as a tool to leverage underutilized data sources that can improve pharmacovigilance, including the objective of adverse drug event (ADE) detection and assessment. This article provides an overview of recent advances in pharmacovigilance driven by the application of text mining, and discusses several data sources-such as biomedical literature, clinical narratives, product labeling, social media, and Web search logs-that are amenable to text mining for pharmacovigilance. Given the state of the art, it appears text mining can be applied to extract useful ADE-related information from multiple textual sources. Nonetheless, further research is required to address remaining technical challenges associated with the text mining methodologies, and to conclusively determine the relative contribution of each textual source to improving pharmacovigilance.

In Brief: Coal mining regulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Showstack, Randy

2009-12-01

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced on 18 November measures to strengthen the oversight of state surface coal mining programs and to promulgate federal regulations to protect streams affected by surface coal mining operations. DOI's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) is publishing an advance notice of a proposed rule about protecting streams from adverse impacts of surface coal mining operations. A rule issued by the Bush administration in December 2008 allows coal mine operators to place excess excavated materials into streams if they can show it is not reasonably possible to avoid doing so. “We are moving as quickly as possible under the law to gather public input for a new rule, based on sound science, that will govern how companies handle fill removed from mountaintop coal seams,” according to Wilma Lewis, assistant secretary for Land and Minerals Management at DOI.

ADVANCED REMOTE SENSING MONITORING OF MINE WASTE

EPA Science Inventory

The OEI-EAD and NERL-ESD have been cooperating on development of monitoring technologies and research to better use remote sensor-derived information and to ultimately disseminate that information to users. This work has focused on NASA'S airborne advanced remote sensor systems ...

Applications of multi-season hyperspectral remote sensing for acid mine water characterization and mapping of secondary iron minerals associated with acid mine drainage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davies, Gwendolyn E.

Acid mine drainage (AMD) resulting from the oxidation of sulfides in mine waste is a major environmental issue facing the mining industry today. Open pit mines, tailings ponds, ore stockpiles, and waste rock dumps can all be significant sources of pollution, primarily heavy metals. These large mining-induced footprints are often located across vast geographic expanses and are difficult to access. With the continuing advancement of imaging satellites, remote sensing may provide a useful monitoring tool for pit lake water quality and the rapid assessment of abandoned mine sites. This study explored the applications of laboratory spectroscopy and multi-season hyperspectral remote sensing for environmental monitoring of mine waste environments. Laboratory spectral experiments were first performed on acid mine waters and synthetic ferric iron solutions to identify and isolate the unique spectral properties of mine waters. These spectral characterizations were then applied to airborne hyperspectral imagery for identification of poor water quality in AMD ponds at the Leviathan Mine Superfund site, CA. Finally, imagery varying in temporal and spatial resolutions were used to identify changes in mineralogy over weathering overburden piles and on dry AMD pond liner surfaces at the Leviathan Mine. Results show the utility of hyperspectral remote sensing for monitoring a diverse range of surfaces associated with AMD.

Method of underground mining by pillar extraction

DOEpatents

Bowen, Ray J.; Bowen, William R.

1980-08-12

A method of sublevel caving and pillar and top coal extraction for mining thick coal seams includes the advance mining of rooms and crosscuts along the bottom of a seam to a height of about eight feet, and the retreat mining of the top coal from the rooms, crosscuts and portions of the pillars remaining from formation of the rooms and cross-cuts. In the retreat mining, a pocket is formed in a pillar, the top coal above the pocket is drilled, charged and shot, and then the fallen coal is loaded by a continuous miner so that the operator remains under a roof which has not been shot. The top coal from that portion of the room adjacent the pocket is then mined, and another pocket is formed in the pillar. The top coal above the second pocket is mined followed by the mining of the top coal of that portion of the room adjacent the second pocket, all by use of a continuous miner which allows the operator to remain under a roof portion which has not been shot.

High pressure water jet mining machine

DOEpatents

Barker, Clark R.

1981-05-05

A high pressure water jet mining machine for the longwall mining of coal is described. The machine is generally in the shape of a plowshare and is advanced in the direction in which the coal is cut. The machine has mounted thereon a plurality of nozzle modules each containing a high pressure water jet nozzle disposed to oscillate in a particular plane. The nozzle modules are oriented to cut in vertical and horizontal planes on the leading edge of the machine and the coal so cut is cleaved off by the wedge-shaped body.

Mining large heterogeneous data sets in drug discovery.

PubMed

Wild, David J

2009-10-01

Increasingly, effective drug discovery involves the searching and data mining of large volumes of information from many sources covering the domains of chemistry, biology and pharmacology amongst others. This has led to a proliferation of databases and data sources relevant to drug discovery. This paper provides a review of the publicly-available large-scale databases relevant to drug discovery, describes the kinds of data mining approaches that can be applied to them and discusses recent work in integrative data mining that looks for associations that pan multiple sources, including the use of Semantic Web techniques. The future of mining large data sets for drug discovery requires intelligent, semantic aggregation of information from all of the data sources described in this review, along with the application of advanced methods such as intelligent agents and inference engines in client applications.

Utilization of volume correlation filters for underwater mine identification in LIDAR imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walls, Bradley

2008-04-01

Underwater mine identification persists as a critical technology pursued aggressively by the Navy for fleet protection. As such, new and improved techniques must continue to be developed in order to provide measurable increases in mine identification performance and noticeable reductions in false alarm rates. In this paper we show how recent advances in the Volume Correlation Filter (VCF) developed for ground based LIDAR systems can be adapted to identify targets in underwater LIDAR imagery. Current automated target recognition (ATR) algorithms for underwater mine identification employ spatial based three-dimensional (3D) shape fitting of models to LIDAR data to identify common mine shapes consisting of the box, cylinder, hemisphere, truncated cone, wedge, and annulus. VCFs provide a promising alternative to these spatial techniques by correlating 3D models against the 3D rendered LIDAR data.

Analysis of radon reduction and ventilation systems in uranium mines in China.

PubMed

Hu, Peng-hua; Li, Xian-jie

2012-09-01

Mine ventilation is the most important way of reducing radon in uranium mines. At present, the radon and radon progeny levels in Chinese uranium mines where the cut and fill stoping method is used are 3-5 times higher than those in foreign uranium mines, as there is not much difference in the investments for ventilation protection between Chinese uranium mines and international advanced uranium mines with compaction methodology. In this paper, through the analysis of radon reduction and ventilation systems in Chinese uranium mines and the comparison of advantages and disadvantages between a variety of ventilation systems in terms of radon control, the authors try to illustrate the reasons for the higher radon and radon progeny levels in Chinese uranium mines and put forward some problems in three areas, namely the theory of radon control and ventilation systems, radon reduction ventilation measures and ventilation management. For these problems, this paper puts forward some proposals regarding some aspects, such as strengthening scrutiny, verifying and monitoring the practical situation, making clear ventilation plans, strictly following the mining sequence, promoting training of ventilation staff, enhancing ventilation system management, developing radon reduction ventilation technology, purchasing ventilation equipment as soon as possible in the future, and so on.

VRLane: a desktop virtual safety management program for underground coal mine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Mei; Chen, Jingzhu; Xiong, Wei; Zhang, Pengpeng; Wu, Daozheng

2008-10-01

VR technologies, which generate immersive, interactive, and three-dimensional (3D) environments, are seldom applied to coal mine safety work management. In this paper, a new method that combined the VR technologies with underground mine safety management system was explored. A desktop virtual safety management program for underground coal mine, called VRLane, was developed. The paper mainly concerned about the current research advance in VR, system design, key techniques and system application. Two important techniques were introduced in the paper. Firstly, an algorithm was designed and implemented, with which the 3D laneway models and equipment models can be built on the basis of the latest mine 2D drawings automatically, whereas common VR programs established 3D environment by using 3DS Max or the other 3D modeling software packages with which laneway models were built manually and laboriously. Secondly, VRLane realized system integration with underground industrial automation. VRLane not only described a realistic 3D laneway environment, but also described the status of the coal mining, with functions of displaying the run states and related parameters of equipment, per-alarming the abnormal mining events, and animating mine cars, mine workers, or long-wall shearers. The system, with advantages of cheap, dynamic, easy to maintenance, provided a useful tool for safety production management in coal mine.

Data Streams: An Overview and Scientific Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aggarwal, Charu C.

In recent years, advances in hardware technology have facilitated the ability to collect data continuously. Simple transactions of everyday life such as using a credit card, a phone, or browsing the web lead to automated data storage. Similarly, advances in information technology have lead to large flows of data across IP networks. In many cases, these large volumes of data can be mined for interesting and relevant information in a wide variety of applications. When the volume of the underlying data is very large, it leads to a number of computational and mining challenges: With increasing volume of the data, it is no longer possible to process the data efficiently by using multiple passes. Rather, one can process a data item at most once. This leads to constraints on the implementation of the underlying algorithms. Therefore, stream mining algorithms typically need to be designed so that the algorithms work with one pass of the data. In most cases, there is an inherent temporal component to the stream mining process. This is because the data may evolve over time. This behavior of data streams is referred to as temporal locality. Therefore, a straightforward adaptation of one-pass mining algorithms may not be an effective solution to the task. Stream mining algorithms need to be carefully designed with a clear focus on the evolution of the underlying data. Another important characteristic of data streams is that they are often mined in a distributed fashion. Furthermore, the individual processors may have limited processing and memory. Examples of such cases include sensor networks, in which it may be desirable to perform in-network processing of data stream with limited processing and memory [1, 2]. This chapter will provide an overview of the key challenges in stream mining algorithms which arise from the unique setup in which these problems are encountered. This chapter is organized as follows. In the next section, we will discuss the generic challenges that stream mining poses to a variety of data management and data mining problems. The next section also deals with several issues which arise in the context of data stream management. In Sect. 3, we discuss several mining algorithms on the data stream model. Section 4 discusses various scientific applications of data streams. Section 5 discusses the research directions and conclusions.

Hydromechanical Advanced Coal Excavator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Estus, Jay M.; Summers, David

1990-01-01

Water-jet cutting reduces coal dust and its hazards. Advanced mining system utilizes full-face, hydromechanical, continuous miner. Coal excavator uses high-pressure water-jet lances, one in each of cutting heads and one in movable lance, to make cuts across top, bottom and middle height, respectively, of coal face. Wedge-shaped cutting heads advance into lower and upper cuts in turn, thereby breaking coal toward middle cut. Thrust cylinders and walking pads advance excavator toward coal face.

OntoGene web services for biomedical text mining.

PubMed

Rinaldi, Fabio; Clematide, Simon; Marques, Hernani; Ellendorff, Tilia; Romacker, Martin; Rodriguez-Esteban, Raul

2014-01-01

Text mining services are rapidly becoming a crucial component of various knowledge management pipelines, for example in the process of database curation, or for exploration and enrichment of biomedical data within the pharmaceutical industry. Traditional architectures, based on monolithic applications, do not offer sufficient flexibility for a wide range of use case scenarios, and therefore open architectures, as provided by web services, are attracting increased interest. We present an approach towards providing advanced text mining capabilities through web services, using a recently proposed standard for textual data interchange (BioC). The web services leverage a state-of-the-art platform for text mining (OntoGene) which has been tested in several community-organized evaluation challenges,with top ranked results in several of them.

OntoGene web services for biomedical text mining

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Text mining services are rapidly becoming a crucial component of various knowledge management pipelines, for example in the process of database curation, or for exploration and enrichment of biomedical data within the pharmaceutical industry. Traditional architectures, based on monolithic applications, do not offer sufficient flexibility for a wide range of use case scenarios, and therefore open architectures, as provided by web services, are attracting increased interest. We present an approach towards providing advanced text mining capabilities through web services, using a recently proposed standard for textual data interchange (BioC). The web services leverage a state-of-the-art platform for text mining (OntoGene) which has been tested in several community-organized evaluation challenges, with top ranked results in several of them. PMID:25472638

Prediction and assessment of the disturbances of the coal mining in Kailuan to karst groundwater system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Wenjie; Wu, Qiang; Liu, Honglei; Jiao, Jian

Coal resources and water resources play an essential and strategic role in the development of China's social and economic development, being the priority for China's medium and long technological development. As the mining of the coal extraction is increasingly deep, the mine water inrush of high-pressure confined karst water becomes much more a problem. This paper carried out research on the hundred-year old Kailuan coal mine's karst groundwater system. With the help of advanced Visual Modflow software and numerical simulation method, the paper assessed the flow field of karst water area under large-scale exploitation. It also predicted the evolution ofgroundwaterflow field under different mining schemes of Kailuan Corp. The result shows that two cones of depression are formed in the karst flow field of Zhaogezhuang mining area and Tangshan mining area, and the water levels in two cone centers are -270 m and -31 m respectively, and the groundwater generally flows from the northeast to the southwest. Given some potential closed mines in the future, the mine discharge will decrease and the water level of Ordovician limestone will increase slightly. Conversely, given increase of coal yield, the mine drainage will increase, falling depression cone of Ordovician limestone flow field will enlarge. And in Tangshan's urban district, central water level of the depression cone will move slightly towards north due to pumping of a few mines in the north.

Rock burst governance of working face under igneous rock

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Zhenxing; Yu, Yue

2017-01-01

As a typical failure phenomenon, rock burst occurs in many mines. It can not only cause the working face to cease production, but also cause serious damage to production equipment, and even result in casualties. To explore how to govern rock burst of working face under igneous rock, the 10416 working face in some mine is taken as engineering background. The supports damaged extensively and rock burst took place when the working face advanced. This paper establishes the mechanical model and conducts theoretical analysis and calculation to predict the fracture and migration mechanism and energy release of the thick hard igneous rock above the working face, and to obtain the advancing distance of the working face when the igneous rock fractures and critical value of the energy when rock burst occurs. Based on the specific conditions of the mine, this paper put forward three kinds of governance measures, which are borehole pressure relief, coal seam water injection and blasting pressure relief.

Automated Data Assimilation and Flight Planning for Multi-Platform Observation Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oza, Nikunj; Morris, Robert A.; Strawa, Anthony; Kurklu, Elif; Keely, Leslie

2008-01-01

This is a progress report on an effort in which our goal is to demonstrate the effectiveness of automated data mining and planning for the daily management of Earth Science missions. Currently, data mining and machine learning technologies are being used by scientists at research labs for validating Earth science models. However, few if any of these advanced techniques are currently being integrated into daily mission operations. Consequently, there are significant gaps in the knowledge that can be derived from the models and data that are used each day for guiding mission activities. The result can be sub-optimal observation plans, lack of useful data, and wasteful use of resources. Recent advances in data mining, machine learning, and planning make it feasible to migrate these technologies into the daily mission planning cycle. We describe the design of a closed loop system for data acquisition, processing, and flight planning that integrates the results of machine learning into the flight planning process.

Population Change in West Virginia 1950-1970. West Virginia University Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Bulletin 658.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sizer, Leonard M.

Growth patterns of the national economy during the 1950's and 1960's have not been shared by the state of West Virginia; towns and rural areas have lost population and job opportunities have declined. The switch to petroleum products and advanced mining technology displaced many coal mine workers. A national food surplus and the difficulty in…

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Raymond, David W.; Gaither, Katherine N.; Polsky, Yarom

Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) has a long history in developing compact, mobile, very high-speed drilling systems and this technology could be applied to increasing the rate at which boreholes are drilled during a mine accident response. The present study reviews current technical approaches, primarily based on technology developed under other programs, analyzes mine rescue specific requirements to develop a conceptual mine rescue drilling approach, and finally, proposes development of a phased mine rescue drilling system (MRDS) that accomplishes (1) development of rapid drilling MRDS equipment; (2) structuring improved web communication through the Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA) web site;more » (3) development of an improved protocol for employment of existing drilling technology in emergencies; (4) deployment of advanced technologies to complement mine rescue drilling operations during emergency events; and (5) preliminary discussion of potential future technology development of specialized MRDS equipment. This phased approach allows for rapid fielding of a basic system for improved rescue drilling, with the ability to improve the system over time at a reasonable cost.« less

Diamond Eye: a distributed architecture for image data mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burl, Michael C.; Fowlkes, Charless; Roden, Joe; Stechert, Andre; Mukhtar, Saleem

1999-02-01

Diamond Eye is a distributed software architecture, which enables users (scientists) to analyze large image collections by interacting with one or more custom data mining servers via a Java applet interface. Each server is coupled with an object-oriented database and a computational engine, such as a network of high-performance workstations. The database provides persistent storage and supports querying of the 'mined' information. The computational engine provides parallel execution of expensive image processing, object recognition, and query-by-content operations. Key benefits of the Diamond Eye architecture are: (1) the design promotes trial evaluation of advanced data mining and machine learning techniques by potential new users (all that is required is to point a web browser to the appropriate URL), (2) software infrastructure that is common across a range of science mining applications is factored out and reused, and (3) the system facilitates closer collaborations between algorithm developers and domain experts.

COBRA ATD minefield detection results for the Joint Countermine ACTD Demonstrations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stetson, Suzanne P.; Witherspoon, Ned H.; Holloway, John H., Jr.; Suiter, Harold R.; Crosby, Frank J.; Hilton, Russell J.; McCarley, Karen A.

2000-08-01

The Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis)COBRA) system described here was a Marine Corps Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) development consisting of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) airborne multispectral video sensor system and ground station which processes the multispectral video data to automatically detect minefields along the flight path. After successful completion of the ATD, the residual COBRA ATD system participated in the Joint Countermine (JCM) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) Demo I held at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina in conjunction with JTFX97 and Demo II held in Stephenville, Newfoundland in conjunction with MARCOT98. These exercises demonstrated the COBRA ATD system in an operational environment, detecting minefields that included several different mine types in widely varying backgrounds. The COBRA system performed superbly during these demonstrations, detecting mines under water, in the surf zone, on the beach, and inland, and has transitioned to an acquisition program. This paper describes the COBRA operation and performance results for these demonstrations, which represent the first demonstrated capability for remote tactical minefield detection from a UAV. The successful COBRA technologies and techniques demonstrated for tactical UAV minefield detection in the Joint Countermine Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations have formed the technical foundation for future developments in Marine Corps, Navy, and Army tactical remote airborne mine detection systems.

Crosscutting Technology Development at the Center for Advanced Separation Technologies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Christopher Hull

2009-10-31

The U.S. is the largest producer of mining products in the world. In 2003, U.S. mining operations produced $57 billion worth of raw materials that contributed a total of $564 billion to the nation's wealth. Despite these contributions, the mining industry has not been well supported with research and development funds as compared to mining industries in other countries. To overcome this problem, the Center for Advanced Separation Technologies (CAST) was established to develop technologies that can be used by the U.S. mining industry to create new products, reduce production costs, and meet environmental regulations. Originally set up by Virginiamore » Tech and West Virginia University, this endeavor has been expanded into a seven-university consortium -- Virginia Tech, West Virginia University, University of Kentucky, University of Utah, Montana Tech, New Mexico Tech and University of Nevada, Reno - that is supported through U.S. DOE Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FC26-02NT41607: Crosscutting Technology Development at the Center for Advanced Separation Technologies. Much of the research to be conducted with Cooperative Agreement funds will be longer-term, high-risk, basic research and will be carried out in five broad areas: (1) Solid-solid separation; (2) Solid-liquid separation; (3) Chemical/biological extraction; (4) Modeling and control; and (5) Environmental control. Distribution of funds is handled via competitive solicitation of research proposals through Site Coordinators at the seven member universities. These were first reviewed and ranked by a group of technical reviewers (selected primarily from industry). Based on these reviews, and an assessment of overall program requirements, the CAST Technical Committee made an initial selection/ranking of proposals and forwarded these to the DOE/NETL Project Officer for final review and approval. The successful projects are listed by category, along with brief abstracts of their aims and objectives.« less

Progress in magnetic sensor technology for sea mine detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clem, Ted R.

1997-07-01

A superconducting magnetic-field gradiometer developed in the 1980's has been demonstrated infusion with acoustic sensors to enhance shallow water sea mine detection and classification, especially for buried mine detection and the reduction of acoustic false alarm rates. This sensor incorporated niobium bulk and wire superconducting components cooled by liquid helium to a temperature of 4 degrees K. An advanced superconducting gradiometer prototype is being developed to increase sensitivity and detection range. This sensor features all thin film niobium superconducting components and a new liquid helium cooling concept. In the late 1980's, a new class of 'high Tc' superconductors was discovered with critical temperatures above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. The use of liquid nitrogen refrigeration offers new opportunities for this sensor technology, providing significant reduction in the size of sensor packages and in the requirements for cryogenic support and logistics. As a result of this breakthrough, a high Tc sensor concept using liquid nitrogen refrigeration has been developed for mine reconnaissance applications and a test article of that concept is being fabricated and evaluated. In addition to these developments in sensor technology, new signal processing approaches and recent experimental results have ben obtained to demonstrate an enhanced D/C capability. In this paper, these recent advances in sensor development and new results for an enhanced D/C capability will be reviewed and a current perspective on the role of magnetic sensors for mine detection and classification will be addressed.

Post-acquisition data mining techniques for LC-MS/MS-acquired data in drug metabolite identification.

PubMed

Dhurjad, Pooja Sukhdev; Marothu, Vamsi Krishna; Rathod, Rajeshwari

2017-08-01

Metabolite identification is a crucial part of the drug discovery process. LC-MS/MS-based metabolite identification has gained widespread use, but the data acquired by the LC-MS/MS instrument is complex, and thus the interpretation of data becomes troublesome. Fortunately, advancements in data mining techniques have simplified the process of data interpretation with improved mass accuracy and provide a potentially selective, sensitive, accurate and comprehensive way for metabolite identification. In this review, we have discussed the targeted (extracted ion chromatogram, mass defect filter, product ion filter, neutral loss filter and isotope pattern filter) and untargeted (control sample comparison, background subtraction and metabolomic approaches) post-acquisition data mining techniques, which facilitate the drug metabolite identification. We have also discussed the importance of integrated data mining strategy.

Integration of vertical and in-seam horizontal well production analyses with stochastic geostatistical algorithms to estimate pre-mining methane drainage efficiency from coal seams: Blue Creek seam, Alabama

PubMed Central

Karacan, C. Özgen

2015-01-01

Coal seam degasification and its efficiency are directly related to the safety of coal mining. Degasification activities in the Black Warrior basin started in the early 1980s by using vertical boreholes. Although the Blue Creek seam, which is part of the Mary Lee coal group, has been the main seam of interest for coal mining, vertical wellbores have also been completed in the Pratt, Mary Lee, and Black Creek coal groups of the Upper Pottsville formation to degasify multiple seams. Currently, the Blue Creek seam is further degasified 2–3 years in advance of mining using in-seam horizontal boreholes to ensure safe mining. The studied location in this work is located between Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties in Alabama and was degasified using 81 vertical boreholes, some of which are still active. When the current long mine expanded its operation into this area in 2009, horizontal boreholes were also drilled in advance of mining for further degasification of only the Blue Creek seam to ensure a safe and a productive operation. This paper presents an integrated study and a methodology to combine history matching results from vertical boreholes with production modeling of horizontal boreholes using geostatistical simulation to evaluate spatial effectiveness of in-seam boreholes in reducing gas-in-place (GIP). Results in this study showed that in-seam wells' boreholes had an estimated effective drainage area of 2050 acres with cumulative production of 604 MMscf methane during ~2 years of operation. With horizontal borehole production, GIP in the Blue Creek seam decreased from an average of 1.52 MMscf to 1.23 MMscf per acre. It was also shown that effective gas flow capacity, which was independently modeled using vertical borehole data, affected horizontal borehole production. GIP and effective gas flow capacity of coal seam gas were also used to predict remaining gas potential for the Blue Creek seam. PMID:26435557

Integration of vertical and in-seam horizontal well production analyses with stochastic geostatistical algorithms to estimate pre-mining methane drainage efficiency from coal seams: Blue Creek seam, Alabama.

PubMed

Karacan, C Özgen

2013-07-30

Coal seam degasification and its efficiency are directly related to the safety of coal mining. Degasification activities in the Black Warrior basin started in the early 1980s by using vertical boreholes. Although the Blue Creek seam, which is part of the Mary Lee coal group, has been the main seam of interest for coal mining, vertical wellbores have also been completed in the Pratt, Mary Lee, and Black Creek coal groups of the Upper Pottsville formation to degasify multiple seams. Currently, the Blue Creek seam is further degasified 2-3 years in advance of mining using in-seam horizontal boreholes to ensure safe mining. The studied location in this work is located between Tuscaloosa and Jefferson counties in Alabama and was degasified using 81 vertical boreholes, some of which are still active. When the current long mine expanded its operation into this area in 2009, horizontal boreholes were also drilled in advance of mining for further degasification of only the Blue Creek seam to ensure a safe and a productive operation. This paper presents an integrated study and a methodology to combine history matching results from vertical boreholes with production modeling of horizontal boreholes using geostatistical simulation to evaluate spatial effectiveness of in-seam boreholes in reducing gas-in-place (GIP). Results in this study showed that in-seam wells' boreholes had an estimated effective drainage area of 2050 acres with cumulative production of 604 MMscf methane during ~2 years of operation. With horizontal borehole production, GIP in the Blue Creek seam decreased from an average of 1.52 MMscf to 1.23 MMscf per acre. It was also shown that effective gas flow capacity, which was independently modeled using vertical borehole data, affected horizontal borehole production. GIP and effective gas flow capacity of coal seam gas were also used to predict remaining gas potential for the Blue Creek seam.

25 CFR 227.16 - Crediting advance annual payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Crediting advance annual payments. 227.16 Section 227.16 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ENERGY AND MINERALS LEASING OF CERTAIN LANDS IN WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION, WYOMING, FOR OIL AND GAS MINING Rents and Royalties § 227.16...

25 CFR 227.16 - Crediting advance annual payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2012-04-01 2011-04-01 true Crediting advance annual payments. 227.16 Section 227.16 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ENERGY AND MINERALS LEASING OF CERTAIN LANDS IN WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION, WYOMING, FOR OIL AND GAS MINING Rents and Royalties § 227.16...

25 CFR 227.16 - Crediting advance annual payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Crediting advance annual payments. 227.16 Section 227.16 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ENERGY AND MINERALS LEASING OF CERTAIN LANDS IN WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION, WYOMING, FOR OIL AND GAS MINING Rents and Royalties § 227.16...

25 CFR 227.16 - Crediting advance annual payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Crediting advance annual payments. 227.16 Section 227.16 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ENERGY AND MINERALS LEASING OF CERTAIN LANDS IN WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION, WYOMING, FOR OIL AND GAS MINING Rents and Royalties § 227.16...

25 CFR 227.16 - Crediting advance annual payments.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Crediting advance annual payments. 227.16 Section 227.16 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ENERGY AND MINERALS LEASING OF CERTAIN LANDS IN WIND RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION, WYOMING, FOR OIL AND GAS MINING Rents and Royalties § 227.16...

Flooding at Iron-Ore Mine, SE Brazil

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-11-14

On Nov. 5, 2015, a dam at an iron-ore mine in southeastern Brazil burst, sending a wall of water, clay-red mud and debris downstream, overwhelming several villages in the path as seen by NASA Terra spacecraft. The Germano mine is near the town of Mariana in Minas Gerais state. The region is seen in this image from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft was acquired Nov. 12, 2015, covers an area of 6.8 by 14.3 miles (11 by 23 kilometers), and is located at 20.2 degrees south, 43.5 degrees west. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20156

Coalbed methane: from hazard to resource

USGS Publications Warehouse

Flores, R.M.

1998-01-01

Coalbed gas, which mainly consists of methane, has remained a major hazard affecting safety and productivity in underground coal mines for more than 100 yr. Coalbed gas emissions have resulted in outbursts and explosions where ignited by open lights, smoking or improper use of black blasting powder, and machinery operations. Investigations of coal gas outbursts and explosions during the past century were aimed at predicting and preventing this mine hazard. During this time, gas emissions were diluted with ventilation by airways (eg, tunnels, vertical and horizontal drillholes, shsfts) and by drainage boreholes. The 1970s 'energy crisis' led to studies of the feasibility of producing the gas for commercial use. Subsequent research on the origin, accumulation, distribution, availability, and recoverability has been pursued vigorously during the past two decades. Since the 1970s research investigations on the causes and effects of coal mine outbursts and gas emissions have led to major advances towards the recovery and development of coalbed methane for commercial use. Thus, coalbed methane as a mining hazard was harnessed as a conventional gas resource.Coalbed gas, which mainly consists of methane, has remained a major hazard affecting safety and productivity in underground coal mines for more than 100 years. Coalbed gas emissions have resulted in outbursts and explosions where ignited by open lights, smoking or improper use of black blasting powder, and machinery operations. Investigations of coal gas outbursts and explosions during the past century were aimed at predicting and preventing this mine hazard. During this time, gas emissions were diluted with ventilation by airways (e.g., tunnels, vertical and horizontal drillholes, shafts) and by drainage boreholes. The 1970's `energy crisis' led to studies of the feasibility of producing the gas for commercial use. Subsequent research on the origin, accumulation, distribution, availability, and recoverability has been pursued vigorously during the past two decades. Since the 1970's research investigations on the causes and effects of coal mine outbursts and gas emissions have led to major advances towards the recovery and development of coalbed methane for commercial use. Thus, coalbed methane as a mining hazard was harnessed as a conventional gas resource.

Activity Recognition for Personal Time Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prekopcsák, Zoltán; Soha, Sugárka; Henk, Tamás; Gáspár-Papanek, Csaba

We describe an accelerometer based activity recognition system for mobile phones with a special focus on personal time management. We compare several data mining algorithms for the automatic recognition task in the case of single user and multiuser scenario, and improve accuracy with heuristics and advanced data mining methods. The results show that daily activities can be recognized with high accuracy and the integration with the RescueTime software can give good insights for personal time management.

Joint Countermobility Capabilities in the Department of Defense

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-13

thesis “ Goalie without a mask” considers the ban on antipersonnel mines (Ottawa treaty) and its effects on US Army countermobility. This paper also...conduct site and recording. This void could cause issues as senior NCOs are pulled from the other elements. If there are not enough personnel to mark a... Goalie Without a Mask? The Effect of the Anti-personnel Land mine Ban on US Army Countermobility Operations.” Monograph, School of Advanced Military

Exploiting Early Intent Recognition for Competitive Advantage

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-01-01

basketball [Bhan- dari et al., 1997; Jug et al., 2003], and Robocup soccer sim- ulations [Riley and Veloso, 2000; 2002; Kuhlmann et al., 2006] and non...actions (e.g. before, after, around). Jug et al. [2003] used a similar framework for offline basketball game analysis. More recently, Hess et al...and K. Ramanujam. Advanced Scout: Data mining and knowledge discovery in NBA data. Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 1(1):121–125, 1997. [Chang

China Report, Economic Affairs, No. 349

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-06-13

average double that of the others. The cost for 39 mu of peasants’ private plots was as high as 12,560 yuan per mu on average. The Zixing Mining ...NINGXIA RIBAO, 10 Feb 83) 16 -a - [III - CC - 83] FINANCE AND BANKING Switch-to- Taxation Preparations Well Advanced (Beijing Domestic Service, 25...Exploitation Plan (XINHUA, 8 May 83) 24 Local Opposition Delays Building of Key Coal Mine (Hunan Provincial Service, 1 May 83) 26 Briefs

State-of-the-art study of resource characterization and planning for underground coal mining. Final technical report as of June 30, 1980

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Walton, D.; Ingham, W.; Kauffman, P.

With the rapid developments taking place in coal mining technology and due to high investment costs, optimization of the structure of underground coal mines is crucial to the success of the mining project. The structure of a mine, once it is developed, cannot be readily changed and has a decisive influence on the productivity, safety, economics, and production capacity of the mine. The Department of Energy desires to ensure that the resource characterization and planning activity for underground coal mining will focus on those areas that offer the most promise of being advanced. Thus, this project was undertaken by Managementmore » Engineers Incorporated to determine the status in all aspects of the resource characterization and planning activities for underground coal mining as presently performed in the industry. The study team conducted a comprehensive computerized literature search and reviewed the results. From this a selection of the particularly relevant sources were annotated and a reference list was prepared, catalogued by resource characterization and mine planning activity. From this data, and discussions with industry representatives, academia, and research groups, private and federal, an assessment and evaluation was made of the state-of-the-art of each element in the resource characterization and mine planning process. The results of this analysis lead to the identifcation of areas requiring research and, specifically, those areas where DOE research efforts may be focused.« less

Finding novel relationships with integrated gene-gene association network analysis of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 using species-independent text-mining.

PubMed

Kreula, Sanna M; Kaewphan, Suwisa; Ginter, Filip; Jones, Patrik R

2018-01-01

The increasing move towards open access full-text scientific literature enhances our ability to utilize advanced text-mining methods to construct information-rich networks that no human will be able to grasp simply from 'reading the literature'. The utility of text-mining for well-studied species is obvious though the utility for less studied species, or those with no prior track-record at all, is not clear. Here we present a concept for how advanced text-mining can be used to create information-rich networks even for less well studied species and apply it to generate an open-access gene-gene association network resource for Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, a representative model organism for cyanobacteria and first case-study for the methodology. By merging the text-mining network with networks generated from species-specific experimental data, network integration was used to enhance the accuracy of predicting novel interactions that are biologically relevant. A rule-based algorithm (filter) was constructed in order to automate the search for novel candidate genes with a high degree of likely association to known target genes by (1) ignoring established relationships from the existing literature, as they are already 'known', and (2) demanding multiple independent evidences for every novel and potentially relevant relationship. Using selected case studies, we demonstrate the utility of the network resource and filter to ( i ) discover novel candidate associations between different genes or proteins in the network, and ( ii ) rapidly evaluate the potential role of any one particular gene or protein. The full network is provided as an open-source resource.

Assessment of alternative power sources for mobile mining machinery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cairelli, J. E.; Tomazic, W. A.; Evans, D. G.; Klann, J. L.

1981-01-01

Alternative mobile power sources for mining applications were assessed. A wide variety of heat engines and energy systems was examined as potential alternatives to presently used power systems. The present mobile power systems are electrical trailing cable, electrical battery, and diesel - with diesel being largely limited in the United States to noncoal mines. Each candidate power source was evaluated for the following requirements: (1) ability to achieve the duty cycle; (2) ability to meet Government regulations; (3) availability (production readiness); (4) market availability; and (5) packaging capability. Screening reduced the list of candidates to the following power sources: diesel, stirling, gas turbine, rankine (steam), advanced electric (batteries), mechanical energy storage (flywheel), and use of hydrogen evolved from metal hydrides. This list of candidates is divided into two classes of alternative power sources for mining applications, heat engines and energy storage systems.

Assessment of alternative power sources for mobile mining machinery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cairelli, J. E.; Tomazic, W. A.; Evans, D. G.; Klann, J. L.

1981-12-01

Alternative mobile power sources for mining applications were assessed. A wide variety of heat engines and energy systems was examined as potential alternatives to presently used power systems. The present mobile power systems are electrical trailing cable, electrical battery, and diesel - with diesel being largely limited in the United States to noncoal mines. Each candidate power source was evaluated for the following requirements: (1) ability to achieve the duty cycle; (2) ability to meet Government regulations; (3) availability (production readiness); (4) market availability; and (5) packaging capability. Screening reduced the list of candidates to the following power sources: diesel, stirling, gas turbine, rankine (steam), advanced electric (batteries), mechanical energy storage (flywheel), and use of hydrogen evolved from metal hydrides. This list of candidates is divided into two classes of alternative power sources for mining applications, heat engines and energy storage systems.

Intervention strategies to eliminate truck-related fatalities in surface coal mining in West Virginia.

PubMed

Zhang, Meng; Kecojevic, Vladislav

2016-01-01

The main objective of this review was to build upon a previous study on the root causes of truck-related fatalities in surface coal mining operations in West Virginia, and to develop intervention strategies to eliminate these fatalities. This review considers a two-pronged approach to accident prevention: one that is fundamental and traditional (safety regulations, training and education, and engineering of the work environment); and one that is innovative and creative (e.g., applying technological advances to better control and eliminate the root causes of accidents). Suggestions for improving current training and education system are proposed, and recommendations are provided on improving the safety of mine working conditions, specifically safety conditions on haul roads, dump sites, and loading areas. We also discuss various currently available technologies that can help prevent haul truck-related fatal accidents. The results of this review should be used by mine personnel to help create safer working conditions and decrease truck-related fatalities in surface coal mining.

Volvo CE to expand driveline components and introduce new loader concept at bauma

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

2007-04-15

This suppliers news report includes a description of Volvo CE's Graphic wheel loader which uses an electric hybrid power sources and is almost emissions free. Simulator training technology is proving its usefulness in establishing higher safety levels in the mining industry. Immersive Technologies Advanced Equipment training simulators are being used to train students at the Academy for Mine Training and Energy Technology in West Virginia. Geo-Explorer core drills manufactured by Multi-Power Products Ltd. of Canada have been purchased by the Pan African Mining Corp. One is to be assigned to the company's coal program where an extensive exploration program ismore » underway in the Sakoa area in Madagascar. A joint venture agreement has been announced between iPackets International and China's Henan YongAn Investment Guarantee Co. and China Coal Information Institute. Under the name GuoAn Mine Safety Communication System, iPacket's wireless communications software and equipment will be deployed in China's mining industry. 3 photos.« less

Prediction of Peaks of Seasonal Influenza in Military Health-Care Data

PubMed Central

Buczak, Anna L.; Baugher, Benjamin; Guven, Erhan; Moniz, Linda; Babin, Steven M.; Chretien, Jean-Paul

2016-01-01

Influenza is a highly contagious disease that causes seasonal epidemics with significant morbidity and mortality. The ability to predict influenza peak several weeks in advance would allow for timely preventive public health planning and interventions to be used to mitigate these outbreaks. Because influenza may also impact the operational readiness of active duty personnel, the US military places a high priority on surveillance and preparedness for seasonal outbreaks. A method for creating models for predicting peak influenza visits per total health-care visits (ie, activity) weeks in advance has been developed using advanced data mining techniques on disparate epidemiological and environmental data. The model results are presented and compared with those of other popular data mining classifiers. By rigorously testing the model on data not used in its development, it is shown that this technique can predict the week of highest influenza activity for a specific region with overall better accuracy than other methods examined in this article. PMID:27127415

Effects of coal mine subsidence in the Sheridan, Wyoming, area

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dunrud, C. Richard; Osterwald, Frank W.

1980-01-01

Analyses of the surface effects of past underground coal mining in the Sheridan, Wyoming, area suggest that underground mining of strippable coal deposits may damage the environment more over long periods of time than would modern surface mining, provided proper restoration procedures are followed after surface mining. Subsidence depressions and pits are a continuing hazard to the environment and to man's activities in the Sheridan, Wyo., area above abandoned underground mines in weak overburden less than about 60 m thick and where the overburden is less than about 10-15 times the thickness of coal mined. In addition, fires commonly start by spontaneous ignition when water and air enter the abandoned mine workings via subsidence cracks and pits. The fires can then spread to unmined coal as they create more cavities, more subsidence, and more cracks and pits through which air can circulate. In modern surface mining operations the total land surface underlain by minable coal is removed to expose the coal. The coal is removed, the overburden and topsoil are replaced, and the land is regraded and revegetated. The land, although disturbed, can be more easily restored and put back into use than can land underlain by abandoned underground mine workings in areas where the overburden is less than about 60 m thick or less than about 10-15 times the thickness of coal mined. The resource recovery of modern surface mining commonly is much greater than that of underground mining procedures. Although present-day underground mining technology is advanced as compared to that of 25-80 years ago, subsidence resulting from underground mining of thick coal beds beneath overburden less than about 60 m thick can still cause greater damage to surface drainage, ground water, and vegetation than can properly designed surface mining operations. This report discusses (11 the geology and surface and underground effects of former large-scale underground coal mining in a 50-km 2 area 5-20 km north of Sheridan, Wyo., (2) a ground and aerial reconnaissance study of a 5-km^2 coal mining area 8-10 km west of Sheridan, and (31 some environmental consequences and problems caused by coal mining.

Army Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations - The Inside Story

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-08-01

has M.S. sors suitable for field use are expected to be * What are the costs vs . benefits and/or and Ph.D. degrees in applied math- available in...scales and in different Proving languages. Implementation Forces (IFOR) Ground. established a Mine Action Center ( MAC ) to deal with the mine incidents and...minefield data problems. Initially, the data had to be manually tracked and posted. Working with personnel in the MAC , the ACTF sponsored work leading

Bioinformatics and Cancer

Cancer.gov

Researchers take on challenges and opportunities to mine "Big Data" for answers to complex biological questions. Learn how bioinformatics uses advanced computing, mathematics, and technological platforms to store, manage, analyze, and understand data.

Advanced Connectivity Analysis (ACA): a Large Scale Functional Connectivity Data Mining Environment.

PubMed

Chen, Rong; Nixon, Erika; Herskovits, Edward

2016-04-01

Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) to study functional connectivity is of great importance to understand normal development and function as well as a host of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Seed-based analysis is one of the most widely used rs-fMRI analysis methods. Here we describe a freely available large scale functional connectivity data mining software package called Advanced Connectivity Analysis (ACA). ACA enables large-scale seed-based analysis and brain-behavior analysis. It can seamlessly examine a large number of seed regions with minimal user input. ACA has a brain-behavior analysis component to delineate associations among imaging biomarkers and one or more behavioral variables. We demonstrate applications of ACA to rs-fMRI data sets from a study of autism.

Differential affinities of MinD and MinE to anionic phospholipid influence Min Patterning dynamics in vitro

PubMed Central

Vecchiarelli, Anthony G.; Li, Min; Mizuuchi, Michiyo; Mizuuchi, Kiyoshi

2014-01-01

The E. coli Min system forms a cell-pole-to-cell-pole oscillator that positions the divisome at mid-cell. The MinD ATPase binds the membrane and recruits the cell division inhibitor MinC. MinE interacts with and releases MinD (and MinC) from the membrane. The chase of MinD by MinE creates the in vivo oscillator that maintains a low level of the division inhibitor at mid-cell. In vitro reconstitution and visualization of Min proteins on a supported lipid bilayer has provided significant advances in understanding Min patterns in vivo. Here we studied the effects of flow, lipid composition, and salt concentration on Min patterning. Flow and no-flow conditions both supported Min protein patterns with somewhat different characteristics. Without flow, MinD and MinE formed spiraling waves. MinD and, to a greater extent MinE, have stronger affinities for anionic phospholipid. MinD-independent binding of MinE to anionic lipid resulted in slower and narrower waves. MinE binding to the bilayer was also more susceptible to changes in ionic strength than MinD. We find that modulating protein diffusion with flow, or membrane binding affinities with changes in lipid composition or salt concentration, can differentially affect the retention time of MinD and MinE, leading to spatiotemporal changes in Min patterning. PMID:24930948

Changes in the Bacterial Community of Soil from a Neutral Mine Drainage Channel

PubMed Central

Pereira, Letícia Bianca; Vicentini, Renato; Ottoboni, Laura M. M.

2014-01-01

Mine drainage is an important environmental disturbance that affects the chemical and biological components in natural resources. However, little is known about the effects of neutral mine drainage on the soil bacteria community. Here, a high-throughput 16S rDNA pyrosequencing approach was used to evaluate differences in composition, structure, and diversity of bacteria communities in samples from a neutral drainage channel, and soil next to the channel, at the Sossego copper mine in Brazil. Advanced statistical analyses were used to explore the relationships between the biological and chemical data. The results showed that the neutral mine drainage caused changes in the composition and structure of the microbial community, but not in its diversity. The Deinococcus/Thermus phylum, especially the Meiothermus genus, was in large part responsible for the differences between the communities, and was positively associated with the presence of copper and other heavy metals in the environmental samples. Other important parameters that influenced the bacterial diversity and composition were the elements potassium, sodium, nickel, and zinc, as well as pH. The findings contribute to the understanding of bacterial diversity in soils impacted by neutral mine drainage, and demonstrate that heavy metals play an important role in shaping the microbial population in mine environments. PMID:24796430

Challenges in recovering resources from acid mine drainage

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nordstrom, D. Kirk; Bowell, Robert J.; Campbell, Kate M.; Alpers, Charles N.

2017-01-01

Metal recovery from mine waters and effluents is not a new approach but one that has occurred largely opportunistically over the last four millennia. Due to the need for low-cost resources and increasingly stringent environmental conditions, mine waters are being considered in a fresh light with a designed, deliberate approach to resource recovery often as part of a larger water treatment evaluation. Mine water chemistry is highly dependent on many factors including geology, ore deposit composition and mineralogy, mining methods, climate, site hydrology, and others. Mine waters are typically Ca-Mg-SO4±Al±Fe with a broad range in pH and metal content. The main issue in recovering components of these waters having potential economic value, such as base metals or rare earth elements, is the separation of these from more reactive metals such as Fe and Al. Broad categories of methods for separating and extracting substances from acidic mine drainage are chemical and biological. Chemical methods include solution, physicochemical, and electrochemical technologies. Advances in membrane techniques such as reverse osmosis have been substantial and the technique is both physical and chemical. Biological methods may be further divided into microbiological and macrobiological, but only the former is considered here as a recovery method, as the latter is typically used as a passive form of water treatment.

The potential of text mining in data integration and network biology for plant research: a case study on Arabidopsis.

PubMed

Van Landeghem, Sofie; De Bodt, Stefanie; Drebert, Zuzanna J; Inzé, Dirk; Van de Peer, Yves

2013-03-01

Despite the availability of various data repositories for plant research, a wealth of information currently remains hidden within the biomolecular literature. Text mining provides the necessary means to retrieve these data through automated processing of texts. However, only recently has advanced text mining methodology been implemented with sufficient computational power to process texts at a large scale. In this study, we assess the potential of large-scale text mining for plant biology research in general and for network biology in particular using a state-of-the-art text mining system applied to all PubMed abstracts and PubMed Central full texts. We present extensive evaluation of the textual data for Arabidopsis thaliana, assessing the overall accuracy of this new resource for usage in plant network analyses. Furthermore, we combine text mining information with both protein-protein and regulatory interactions from experimental databases. Clusters of tightly connected genes are delineated from the resulting network, illustrating how such an integrative approach is essential to grasp the current knowledge available for Arabidopsis and to uncover gene information through guilt by association. All large-scale data sets, as well as the manually curated textual data, are made publicly available, hereby stimulating the application of text mining data in future plant biology studies.

Using temporarily coherent point interferometric synthetic aperture radar for land subsidence monitoring in a mining region of western China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Hongdong; Xu, Qiang; Hu, Zhongbo; Du, Sen

2017-04-01

Yuyang mine is located in the semiarid western region of China where, due to serious land subsidence caused by underground coal exploitation, the local ecological environment has become more fragile. An advanced interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique, temporarily coherent point InSAR, is applied to measure surface movements caused by different mining conditions. Fifteen high-resolution TerraSAR-X images acquired between October 2, 2012, and March 27, 2013, were processed to generate time-series data for ground deformation. The results show that the maximum accumulated values of subsidence and velocity were 86 mm and 162 mm/year, respectively; these measurements were taken above the fully mechanized longwall caving faces. Based on the dynamic land subsidence caused by the exploitation of one working face, the land subsidence range was deduced to have increased 38 m in the mining direction with 11 days' coal extraction. Although some mining faces were ceased in 2009, they could also have contributed to a small residual deformation of overlying strata. Surface subsidence of the backfill mining region was quite small, the maximum only 21 mm, so backfill exploitation is an effective method for reducing the land subsidence while coal is mined.

Mining of Business-Oriented Conversations at a Call Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeuchi, Hironori; Nasukawa, Tetsuya; Watanabe, Hideo

Recently it has become feasible to transcribe textual records from telephone conversations at call centers by using automatic speech recognition. In this research, we extended a text mining system for call summary records and constructed a conversation mining system for the business-oriented conversations at the call center. To acquire useful business insights from the conversational data through the text mining system, it is critical to identify appropriate textual segments and expressions as the viewpoints to focus on. In the analysis of call summary data using a text mining system, some experts defined the viewpoints for the analysis by looking at some sample records and by preparing the dictionaries based on frequent keywords in the sample dataset. However with conversations it is difficult to identify such viewpoints manually and in advance because the target data consists of complete transcripts that are often lengthy and redundant. In this research, we defined a model of the business-oriented conversations and proposed a mining method to identify segments that have impacts on the outcomes of the conversations and can then extract useful expressions in each of these identified segments. In the experiment, we processed the real datasets from a car rental service center and constructed a mining system. With this system, we show the effectiveness of the method based on the defined conversation model.

Automation of the longwall mining system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zimmerman, W.; Aster, R. W.; Harris, J.; High, J.

1982-01-01

Cost effective, safe, and technologically sound applications of automation technology to underground coal mining were identified. The longwall analysis commenced with a general search for government and industry experience of mining automation technology. A brief industry survey was conducted to identify longwall operational, safety, and design problems. The prime automation candidates resulting from the industry experience and survey were: (1) the shearer operation, (2) shield and conveyor pan line advance, (3) a management information system to allow improved mine logistics support, and (4) component fault isolation and diagnostics to reduce untimely maintenance delays. A system network analysis indicated that a 40% improvement in productivity was feasible if system delays associated with all of the above four areas were removed. A technology assessment and conceptual system design of each of the four automation candidate areas showed that state of the art digital computer, servomechanism, and actuator technologies could be applied to automate the longwall system.

Toward a Progress Indicator for Machine Learning Model Building and Data Mining Algorithm Execution: A Position Paper.

PubMed

Luo, Gang

2017-12-01

For user-friendliness, many software systems offer progress indicators for long-duration tasks. A typical progress indicator continuously estimates the remaining task execution time as well as the portion of the task that has been finished. Building a machine learning model often takes a long time, but no existing machine learning software supplies a non-trivial progress indicator. Similarly, running a data mining algorithm often takes a long time, but no existing data mining software provides a nontrivial progress indicator. In this article, we consider the problem of offering progress indicators for machine learning model building and data mining algorithm execution. We discuss the goals and challenges intrinsic to this problem. Then we describe an initial framework for implementing such progress indicators and two advanced, potential uses of them, with the goal of inspiring future research on this topic.

Toward a Progress Indicator for Machine Learning Model Building and Data Mining Algorithm Execution: A Position Paper

PubMed Central

Luo, Gang

2017-01-01

For user-friendliness, many software systems offer progress indicators for long-duration tasks. A typical progress indicator continuously estimates the remaining task execution time as well as the portion of the task that has been finished. Building a machine learning model often takes a long time, but no existing machine learning software supplies a non-trivial progress indicator. Similarly, running a data mining algorithm often takes a long time, but no existing data mining software provides a nontrivial progress indicator. In this article, we consider the problem of offering progress indicators for machine learning model building and data mining algorithm execution. We discuss the goals and challenges intrinsic to this problem. Then we describe an initial framework for implementing such progress indicators and two advanced, potential uses of them, with the goal of inspiring future research on this topic. PMID:29177022

Resource Conflicts: Emerging Struggles over Strategic Commodities in Latin America. Phase 2

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-01

Madre de Dios , between local communities and Mobil, which sought to develop a natural gas project. In the late 1990s, the audiencia for that project was...for instance, that Grupo de México is not a member of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), created in 2001 “to advance the mining...Experiment Reconsidered, ed. Cynthia McClintock and Abraham F. Lowenthal (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983), 187–192. 7 Comisión de la Verdad

RASSOR Mobility

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-04-12

RASSOR 2.0, a mining robot in work for the moon or Mars, shows off its dexterity in the Regolith Bin at Kennedy Space Center. RASSOR stands for Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot. On the surface of Mars, mining robots like RASSOR will dig down into the regolith and take the material to a processing plant where usable elements such as hydrogen, oxygen and water can be extracted for life support systems. Regolith also shows promise for both construction and creating elements for rocket fuel.

Comparison of Automated and Manual Recording of Brief Episodes of Intracranial Hypertension and Cerebral Hypoperfusion and Their Association with Outcome After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-01

neuro ICP care beyond trauma care. 15. SUBJECT TERMS Advanced machine learning techniques, intracranial pressure, vital signs, monitoring...death and disability in combat casualties [1,2]. Approximately 2 million head injuries occur annually in the United States, resulting in more than...editor. Machine learning and data mining in pattern recognition. Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Machine Learning and Data Mining in

LavaNet—Neural network development environment in a general mine planning package

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kapageridis, Ioannis Konstantinou; Triantafyllou, A. G.

2011-04-01

LavaNet is a series of scripts written in Perl that gives access to a neural network simulation environment inside a general mine planning package. A well known and a very popular neural network development environment, the Stuttgart Neural Network Simulator, is used as the base for the development of neural networks. LavaNet runs inside VULCAN™—a complete mine planning package with advanced database, modelling and visualisation capabilities. LavaNet is taking advantage of VULCAN's Perl based scripting environment, Lava, to bring all the benefits of neural network development and application to geologists, mining engineers and other users of the specific mine planning package. LavaNet enables easy development of neural network training data sets using information from any of the data and model structures available, such as block models and drillhole databases. Neural networks can be trained inside VULCAN™ and the results be used to generate new models that can be visualised in 3D. Direct comparison of developed neural network models with conventional and geostatistical techniques is now possible within the same mine planning software package. LavaNet supports Radial Basis Function networks, Multi-Layer Perceptrons and Self-Organised Maps.

Data Mining and Machine Learning in Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ball, Nicholas M.; Brunner, Robert J.

We review the current state of data mining and machine learning in astronomy. Data Mining can have a somewhat mixed connotation from the point of view of a researcher in this field. If used correctly, it can be a powerful approach, holding the potential to fully exploit the exponentially increasing amount of available data, promising great scientific advance. However, if misused, it can be little more than the black box application of complex computing algorithms that may give little physical insight, and provide questionable results. Here, we give an overview of the entire data mining process, from data collection through to the interpretation of results. We cover common machine learning algorithms, such as artificial neural networks and support vector machines, applications from a broad range of astronomy, emphasizing those in which data mining techniques directly contributed to improving science, and important current and future directions, including probability density functions, parallel algorithms, Peta-Scale computing, and the time domain. We conclude that, so long as one carefully selects an appropriate algorithm and is guided by the astronomical problem at hand, data mining can be very much the powerful tool, and not the questionable black box.

Multisensor fusion for the detection of mines and minelike targets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanshaw, Terilee

1995-06-01

The US Army's Communications and Electronics Command through the auspices of its Night Vision and Electronics Sensors Directorate (CECOM-NVESD) is actively applying multisensor techniques to the detection of mine targets. This multisensor research results from the 'detection activity' with its broad range of operational conditions and targets. Multisensor operation justifies significant attention by yielding high target detection and low false alarm statistics. Furthermore, recent advances in sensor and computing technologies make its practical application realistic and affordable. The mine detection field-of-endeavor has since its WWI baptismal investigated the known spectra for applicable mine observation phenomena. Countless sensors, algorithms, processors, networks, and other techniques have been investigated to determine candidacy for mine detection. CECOM-NVESD efforts have addressed a wide range of sensors spanning the spectrum from gravity field perturbations, magentic field disturbances, seismic sounding, electromagnetic fields, earth penetrating radar imagery, and infrared/visible/ultraviolet surface imaging technologies. Supplementary analysis has considered sensor candidate applicability by testing under field conditions (versus laboratory), in determination of fieldability. As these field conditions directly effect the probability of detection and false alarms, sensor employment and design must be considered. Consequently, as a given sensor's performance is influenced directly by the operational conditions, tradeoffs are necessary. At present, mass produced and fielded mine detection techniques are limited to those incorporating a single sensor/processor methodology such as, pulse induction and megnetometry, as found in hand held detectors. The most sensitive fielded systems can detect minute metal components in small mine targets but result in very high false alarm rates reducing velocity in operation environments. Furthermore, the actual speed of advance for the entire mission (convoy, movement to engagement, etc.) is determined by the level of difficulty presented in clearance or avoidance activities required in response to the potential 'targets' marked throughout a detection activity. Therefore the application of fielded hand held systems to convoy operations in clearly impractical. CECOM-NVESD efforts are presently seeking to overcome these operational limitations by substantially increasing speed of detection while reducing the false alarm rate through the application of multisensor techniques. The CECOM-NVESD application of multisensor techniques through integration/fusion methods will be defined in this paper.

Finding novel relationships with integrated gene-gene association network analysis of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 using species-independent text-mining

PubMed Central

Kreula, Sanna M.; Kaewphan, Suwisa; Ginter, Filip

2018-01-01

The increasing move towards open access full-text scientific literature enhances our ability to utilize advanced text-mining methods to construct information-rich networks that no human will be able to grasp simply from ‘reading the literature’. The utility of text-mining for well-studied species is obvious though the utility for less studied species, or those with no prior track-record at all, is not clear. Here we present a concept for how advanced text-mining can be used to create information-rich networks even for less well studied species and apply it to generate an open-access gene-gene association network resource for Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, a representative model organism for cyanobacteria and first case-study for the methodology. By merging the text-mining network with networks generated from species-specific experimental data, network integration was used to enhance the accuracy of predicting novel interactions that are biologically relevant. A rule-based algorithm (filter) was constructed in order to automate the search for novel candidate genes with a high degree of likely association to known target genes by (1) ignoring established relationships from the existing literature, as they are already ‘known’, and (2) demanding multiple independent evidences for every novel and potentially relevant relationship. Using selected case studies, we demonstrate the utility of the network resource and filter to (i) discover novel candidate associations between different genes or proteins in the network, and (ii) rapidly evaluate the potential role of any one particular gene or protein. The full network is provided as an open-source resource. PMID:29844966

Solid Waste Treatment Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hershaft, Alex

1972-01-01

Advances in research and commercial solid waste handling are offering many more processing choices. This survey discusses techniques of storage and removal, fragmentation and sorting, bulk reduction, conversion, reclamation, mining and mineral processing, and disposal. (BL)

Detection of buried objects by fusing dual-band infrared images

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Clark, G.A.; Sengupta, S.K.; Sherwood, R.J.

1993-11-01

We have conducted experiments to demonstrate the enhanced detectability of buried land mines using sensor fusion techniques. Multiple sensors, including visible imagery, infrared imagery, and ground penetrating radar (GPR), have been used to acquire data on a number of buried mines and mine surrogates. Because the visible wavelength and GPR data are currently incomplete. This paper focuses on the fusion of two-band infrared images. We use feature-level fusion and supervised learning with the probabilistic neural network (PNN) to evaluate detection performance. The novelty of the work lies in the application of advanced target recognition algorithms, the fusion of dual-band infraredmore » images and evaluation of the techniques using two real data sets.« less

The landscape for epigenetic/epigenomic biomedical resources

PubMed Central

Shakya, Kabita; O'Connell, Mary J.; Ruskin, Heather J.

2012-01-01

Recent advances in molecular biology and computational power have seen the biomedical sector enter a new era, with corresponding development of Bioinformatics as a major discipline. Generation of enormous amounts of data has driven the need for more advanced storage solutions and shared access through a range of public repositories. The number of such biomedical resources is increasing constantly and mining these large and diverse data sets continues to present real challenges. This paper attempts a general overview of currently available resources, together with remarks on their data mining and analysis capabilities. Of interest here is the recent shift in focus from genetic to epigenetic/epigenomic research and the emergence and extension of resource provision to support this both at local and global scale. Biomedical text and numerical data mining are both considered, the first dealing with automated methods for analyzing research content and information extraction, and the second (broadly) with pattern recognition and prediction. Any summary and selection of resources is inherently limited, given the spectrum available, but the aim is to provide a guideline for the assessment and comparison of currently available provision, particularly as this relates to epigenetics/epigenomics. PMID:22874136

Minehunting sonar system research and development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferguson, Brian

2002-05-01

Sea mines have the potential to threaten the freedom of the seas by disrupting maritime trade and restricting the freedom of maneuver of navies. The acoustic detection, localization, and classification of sea mines involves a sequence of operations starting with the transmission of a sonar pulse and ending with an operator interpreting the information on a sonar display. A recent improvement to the process stems from the application of neural networks to the computed aided detection of sea mines. The advent of ultrawideband sonar transducers together with pulse compression techniques offers a thousandfold increase in the bandwidth-time product of conventional minehunting sonar transmissions enabling stealth mines to be detected at longer ranges. These wideband signals also enable mines to be imaged at safe standoff distances by applying tomographic image reconstruction techniques. The coupling of wideband transducer technology with synthetic aperture processing enhances the resolution of side scan sonars in both the cross-track and along-track directions. The principles on which conventional and advanced minehunting sonars are based are reviewed and the results of applying novel sonar signal processing algorithms to high-frequency sonar data collected in Australian waters are presented.

The mine and the furnace: Francis Bacon, Thomas Russell, and early Stuart mining culture.

PubMed

Pastorino, Cesare

2009-01-01

Notwithstanding Francis Bacon's praise for the philosophical role of the mechanical arts, historians have often downplayed Bacon's connections with actual artisans and entrepreneurs. Addressing the specific context of mining culture, this study proposes a rather different picture. The analysis of a famous mining metaphor in The Advancement of Learning shows us how Bacon's project of reform of knowledge could find an apt correspondence in civic and entrepreneurial values of his time. Also, Bacon had interesting and so far unexplored links with the early modern English mining enterprises, like the Company of Mineral and Battery Works, ofwhich he was a shareholder. Moreover, Bacon's notes in a private notebook, Commentarius Solutus, and records of patents of invention, allow us to start grasping Bacon's connections with the metallurgist and entrepreneur Thomas Russell. Lastly, this paper argues that, to fully understand Bacon's links with the world of Stuart technicians and entrepreneurs, it is necessary to consider a different and insufficiently studied aspect of Bacon's interests, namely his work as patents referee while a Commissioner of Suits.

A Text-Mining Framework for Supporting Systematic Reviews.

PubMed

Li, Dingcheng; Wang, Zhen; Wang, Liwei; Sohn, Sunghwan; Shen, Feichen; Murad, Mohammad Hassan; Liu, Hongfang

2016-11-01

Systematic reviews (SRs) involve the identification, appraisal, and synthesis of all relevant studies for focused questions in a structured reproducible manner. High-quality SRs follow strict procedures and require significant resources and time. We investigated advanced text-mining approaches to reduce the burden associated with abstract screening in SRs and provide high-level information summary. A text-mining SR supporting framework consisting of three self-defined semantics-based ranking metrics was proposed, including keyword relevance, indexed-term relevance and topic relevance. Keyword relevance is based on the user-defined keyword list used in the search strategy. Indexed-term relevance is derived from indexed vocabulary developed by domain experts used for indexing journal articles and books. Topic relevance is defined as the semantic similarity among retrieved abstracts in terms of topics generated by latent Dirichlet allocation, a Bayesian-based model for discovering topics. We tested the proposed framework using three published SRs addressing a variety of topics (Mass Media Interventions, Rectal Cancer and Influenza Vaccine). The results showed that when 91.8%, 85.7%, and 49.3% of the abstract screening labor was saved, the recalls were as high as 100% for the three cases; respectively. Relevant studies identified manually showed strong topic similarity through topic analysis, which supported the inclusion of topic analysis as relevance metric. It was demonstrated that advanced text mining approaches can significantly reduce the abstract screening labor of SRs and provide an informative summary of relevant studies.

Navy/Marine Corps innovative science and technology developments for future enhanced mine detection capabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holloway, John H., Jr.; Witherspoon, Ned H.; Miller, Richard E.; Davis, Kenn S.; Suiter, Harold R.; Hilton, Russell J.

2000-08-01

JMDT is a Navy/Marine Corps 6.2 Exploratory Development program that is closely coordinated with the 6.4 COBRA acquisition program. The objective of the program is to develop innovative science and technology to enhance future mine detection capabilities. The objective of the program is to develop innovative science and technology to enhance future mine detection capabilities. Prior to transition to acquisition, the COBRA ATD was extremely successful in demonstrating a passive airborne multispectral video sensor system operating in the tactical Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), combined with an integrated ground station subsystem to detect and locate minefields from surf zone to inland areas. JMDT is investigating advanced technology solutions for future enhancements in mine field detection capability beyond the current COBRA ATD demonstrated capabilities. JMDT has recently been delivered next- generation, innovative hardware which was specified by the Coastal System Station and developed under contract. This hardware includes an agile-tuning multispectral, polarimetric, digital video camera and advanced multi wavelength laser illumination technologies to extend the same sorts of multispectral detections from a UAV into the night and over shallow water and other difficult littoral regions. One of these illumination devices is an ultra- compact, highly-efficient near-IR laser diode array. The other is a multi-wavelength range-gateable laser. Additionally, in conjunction with this new technology, algorithm enhancements are being developed in JMDT for future naval capabilities which will outperform the already impressive record of automatic detection of minefields demonstrated by the COBAR ATD.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Solc, J.

The reclamation effort typically deals with consequences of mining activity instead of being planned well before the mining. Detailed assessment of principal hydro- and geochemical processes participating in pore and groundwater chemistry evolution was carried out at three surface mine localities in North Dakota-the Fritz mine, the Indian Head mine, and the Velva mine. The geochemical model MINTEQUA2 and advanced statistical analysis coupled with traditional interpretive techniques were used to determine site-specific environmental characteristics and to compare the differences between study sites. Multivariate statistical analysis indicates that sulfate, magnesium, calcium, the gypsum saturation index, and sodium contribute the most tomore » overall differences in groundwater chemistry between study sites. Soil paste extract pH and EC measurements performed on over 3700 samples document extremely acidic soils at the Fritz mine. The number of samples with pH <5.5 reaches 80%-90% of total samples from discrete depth near the top of the soil profile at the Fritz mine. Soil samples from Indian Head and Velva do not indicate the acidity below the pH of 5.5 limit. The percentage of samples with EC > 3 mS cm{sup -1} is between 20% and 40% at the Fritz mine and below 20% for samples from Indian Head and Velva. The results of geochemical modeling indicate an increased tendency for gypsum saturation within the vadose zone, particularly within the lands disturbed by mining activity. This trend is directly associated with increased concentrations of sulfate anions as a result of mineral oxidation. Geochemical modeling, statistical analysis, and soil extract pH and EC measurements proved to be reliable, fast, and relatively cost-effective tools for the assessment of soil acidity, the extent of the oxidation zone, and the potential for negative impact on pore and groundwater chemistry.« less

Signal system data mining

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-09-01

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) include large numbers of traffic sensors that collect enormous quantities of data. The data provided by ITS is necessary for advanced forms of control, however basic forms of control, primarily time-of-day (TO...

The Potential of Text Mining in Data Integration and Network Biology for Plant Research: A Case Study on Arabidopsis[C][W

PubMed Central

Van Landeghem, Sofie; De Bodt, Stefanie; Drebert, Zuzanna J.; Inzé, Dirk; Van de Peer, Yves

2013-01-01

Despite the availability of various data repositories for plant research, a wealth of information currently remains hidden within the biomolecular literature. Text mining provides the necessary means to retrieve these data through automated processing of texts. However, only recently has advanced text mining methodology been implemented with sufficient computational power to process texts at a large scale. In this study, we assess the potential of large-scale text mining for plant biology research in general and for network biology in particular using a state-of-the-art text mining system applied to all PubMed abstracts and PubMed Central full texts. We present extensive evaluation of the textual data for Arabidopsis thaliana, assessing the overall accuracy of this new resource for usage in plant network analyses. Furthermore, we combine text mining information with both protein–protein and regulatory interactions from experimental databases. Clusters of tightly connected genes are delineated from the resulting network, illustrating how such an integrative approach is essential to grasp the current knowledge available for Arabidopsis and to uncover gene information through guilt by association. All large-scale data sets, as well as the manually curated textual data, are made publicly available, hereby stimulating the application of text mining data in future plant biology studies. PMID:23532071

Evaluation of Aster Images for Characterization and Mapping of Amethyst Mining Residues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Markoski, P. R.; Rolim, S. B. A.

2012-07-01

The objective of this work was to evaluate the potential of Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), subsystems VNIR (Visible and Near Infrared) and SWIR (Short Wave Infrared) images, for discrimination and mapping of amethyst mining residues (basalt) in the Ametista do Sul Region, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. This region provides the most part of amethyst mining of the World. The basalt is extracted during the mining process and deposited outside the mine. As a result, mounts of residues (basalt) rise up. These mounts are many times smaller than ASTER pixel size (VNIR - 15 meters and SWIR - 30 meters). Thus, the pixel composition becomes a mixing of various materials, hampering its identification and mapping. Trying to solve this problem, multispectral algorithm Maximum Likelihood (MaxVer) and the hyperspectral technique SAM (Spectral Angle Mapper) were used in this work. Images from ASTER subsystems VNIR and SWIR were used to perform the classifications. SAM technique produced better results than MaxVer algorithm. The main error found by the techniques was the mixing between "shadow" and "mining residues/basalt" classes. With the SAM technique the confusion decreased because it employed the basalt spectral curve as a reference, while the multispectral techniques employed pixels groups that could have spectral mixture with other targets. The results showed that in tropical terrains as the study area, ASTER data can be efficacious for the characterization of mining residues.

Monitoring of the mercury mining site Almadén implementing remote sensing technologies.

PubMed

Schmid, Thomas; Rico, Celia; Rodríguez-Rastrero, Manuel; José Sierra, María; Javier Díaz-Puente, Fco; Pelayo, Marta; Millán, Rocio

2013-08-01

The Almadén area in Spain has a long history of mercury mining with prolonged human-induced activities that are related to mineral extraction and metallurgical processes before the closure of the mines and a more recent post period dominated by projects that reclaim the mine dumps and tailings and recuperating the entire mining area. Furthermore, socio-economic alternatives such as crop cultivation, livestock breeding and tourism are increasing in the area. Up till now, only scattered information on these activities is available from specific studies. However, improved acquisition systems using satellite borne data in the last decades opens up new possibilities to periodically study an area of interest. Therefore, comparing the influence of these activities on the environment and monitoring their impact on the ecosystem vastly improves decision making for the public policy makers to implement appropriate land management measures and control environmental degradation. The objective of this work is to monitor environmental changes affected by human-induced activities within the Almadén area occurring before, during and after the mine closure over a period of nearly three decades. To achieve this, data from numerous sources at different spatial scales and time periods are implemented into a methodology based on advanced remote sensing techniques. This includes field spectroradiometry measurements, laboratory analyses and satellite borne data of different surface covers to detect land cover and use changes throughout the mining area. Finally, monitoring results show that the distribution of areas affected by mercury mining is rapidly diminishing since activities ceased and that rehabilitated mining areas form a new landscape. This refers to mine tailings that have been sealed and revegetated as well as an open pit mine that has been converted to an "artificial" lake surface. Implementing a methodology based on remote sensing techniques that integrate data from several sources at different scales greatly improves the regional characterization and monitoring of an area dominated by mercury mining activities. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Modeling Spatial Dependencies and Semantic Concepts in Data Mining

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vatsavai, Raju

Data mining is the process of discovering new patterns and relationships in large datasets. However, several studies have shown that general data mining techniques often fail to extract meaningful patterns and relationships from the spatial data owing to the violation of fundamental geospatial principles. In this tutorial, we introduce basic principles behind explicit modeling of spatial and semantic concepts in data mining. In particular, we focus on modeling these concepts in the widely used classification, clustering, and prediction algorithms. Classification is the process of learning a structure or model (from user given inputs) and applying the known model to themore » new data. Clustering is the process of discovering groups and structures in the data that are ``similar,'' without applying any known structures in the data. Prediction is the process of finding a function that models (explains) the data with least error. One common assumption among all these methods is that the data is independent and identically distributed. Such assumptions do not hold well in spatial data, where spatial dependency and spatial heterogeneity are a norm. In addition, spatial semantics are often ignored by the data mining algorithms. In this tutorial we cover recent advances in explicitly modeling of spatial dependencies and semantic concepts in data mining.« less

Biocuration workflows and text mining: overview of the BioCreative 2012 Workshop Track II.

PubMed

Lu, Zhiyong; Hirschman, Lynette

2012-01-01

Manual curation of data from the biomedical literature is a rate-limiting factor for many expert curated databases. Despite the continuing advances in biomedical text mining and the pressing needs of biocurators for better tools, few existing text-mining tools have been successfully integrated into production literature curation systems such as those used by the expert curated databases. To close this gap and better understand all aspects of literature curation, we invited submissions of written descriptions of curation workflows from expert curated databases for the BioCreative 2012 Workshop Track II. We received seven qualified contributions, primarily from model organism databases. Based on these descriptions, we identified commonalities and differences across the workflows, the common ontologies and controlled vocabularies used and the current and desired uses of text mining for biocuration. Compared to a survey done in 2009, our 2012 results show that many more databases are now using text mining in parts of their curation workflows. In addition, the workshop participants identified text-mining aids for finding gene names and symbols (gene indexing), prioritization of documents for curation (document triage) and ontology concept assignment as those most desired by the biocurators. DATABASE URL: http://www.biocreative.org/tasks/bc-workshop-2012/workflow/.

Realizing modeling and mapping tools to study the upsurge of noise pollution as a result of open-cast mining and transportation activities.

PubMed

Lokhande, Satish K; Jain, Mohindra C; Dhawale, Satyajeet A; Gautam, Rakesh; Bodhe, Ghanshyam L

2018-01-01

In open-cast mines, noise pollution has become a serious concern due to the extreme use of heavy earth moving machinery (HEMM). This study is focused to measure and assess the effects of the existing noise levels of major operational mines in the Keonjhar, Sundergadh, and Mayurbhanj districts of Odisha, India. The transportation noise levels were also considered in this study, which was predicted using the modified Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) model. It was observed that noise induced by HEMM such as rock breakers, jackhammers, dumpers, and excavators, blasting noise in the mining terrain, as well as associated transportation noise became a major source of annoyance to the habitants living in proximity to the mines. The noise produced by mechanized mining operations was observed between 74.3 and 115.2 dB(A), and its impact on residential areas was observed between 49.4 and 58.9 dB(A). In addition, the noise contour maps of sound level dispersion were demonstrated with the utilization of advanced noise prediction software tools for better understanding. Finally, the predicted values at residential zone and traffic noise are correlated with observed values, and the coefficient of determination, R 2 , was calculated to be 0.6891 and 0.5967, respectively.

Astroinformatics, data mining and the future of astronomical research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brescia, Massimo; Longo, Giuseppe

2013-08-01

Astronomy, as many other scientific disciplines, is facing a true data deluge which is bound to change both the praxis and the methodology of every day research work. The emerging field of astroinformatics, while on the one end appears crucial to face the technological challenges, on the other is opening new exciting perspectives for new astronomical discoveries through the implementation of advanced data mining procedures. The complexity of astronomical data and the variety of scientific problems, however, call for innovative algorithms and methods as well as for an extreme usage of ICT technologies.

Forecast of long term coal supply and mining conditions: Model documentation and results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1980-01-01

A coal industry model was developed to support the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in its investigation of advanced underground coal extraction systems. The model documentation includes the programming for the coal mining cost models and an accompanying users' manual, and a guide to reading model output. The methodology used in assembling the transportation, demand, and coal reserve components of the model are also described. Results presented for 1986 and 2000, include projections of coal production patterns and marginal prices, differentiated by coal sulfur content.

Progress in the Visualization and Mining of Chemical and Target Spaces.

PubMed

Medina-Franco, José L; Aguayo-Ortiz, Rodrigo

2013-12-01

Chemogenomics is a growing field that aims to integrate the chemical and target spaces. As part of a multi-disciplinary effort to achieve this goal, computational methods initially developed to visualize the chemical space of compound collections and mine single-target structure-activity relationships, are being adapted to visualize and mine complex relationships in chemogenomics data sets. Similarly, the growing evidence that clinical effects are many times due to the interaction of single or multiple drugs with multiple targets, is encouraging the development of novel methodologies that are integrated in multi-target drug discovery endeavors. Herein we review advances in the development and application of approaches to generate visual representations of chemical space with particular emphasis on methods that aim to explore and uncover relationships between chemical and target spaces. Also, progress in the data mining of the structure-activity relationships of sets of compounds screened across multiple targets are discussed in light of the concept of activity landscape modeling. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Development of a novel low frequency GPR system for ultra-deep detection in Mine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Xianlei; Peng, Suping; Yang, Feng

2016-04-01

Mine disasters sources is the main source of the underground coal mine accidents in China. This paper describes the development of a novel explosion proof ground penetrating radar (GPR) for mine disasters sources detection, aiming to solve the current problems of the small detection range and low precision in the mine advanced detection in China. A high performance unipolar pulse transmitting unit is developed by using avalanche transistors, and an effective pulse excitation source network. And a new pluggable combined low-frequency antenna involving three frequencies with 12.5MHz, 25 MHz and 50MHz, is designed and developed. The plate-type structure is designed, aiming to enhance the directivity of the antenna, and the achievement of the antenna impedance matching is implemented in the feed point based on the extensions interface design, enhancing the antenna bandwidth and reducing the standing wave interference. Moreover, a high precision stepper delay circuit is designed by transforming the number of the operational amplifier step and using the differential compensation between the metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors, aiming to improve the accuracy of the signal acquisition system. In order to adapt to the mine environment, the explosion-proof design is implemented for the GPR system, including the host, transmitter, receiver, battery box, antenna, and other components.Mine detection experiments is carried out and the results show: the novel GPR system can effectively detect the location and depth of the geological disasters source with the depth greater than30 m and the diameter greater than 3m, the maximum detection depth can be up to 80m, which break the current detection depth limitations within 30m, providing an effective technical support for the ultra-deep mine disasters detection and the safety problems in coal mine production.

Geophysical Technologies to Image Old Mine Works

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kanaan Hanna; Jim Pfeiffer

2007-01-15

ZapataEngineering, Blackhawk Division performed geophysical void detection demonstrations for the US Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). The objective was to advance current state-of-practices of geophysical technologies for detecting underground mine voids. The presence of old mine works above, adjacent, or below an active mine presents major health and safety hazards to miners who have inadvertently cut into locations with such features. In addition, the presence of abandoned mines or voids beneath roadways and highway structures may greatly impact the performance of the transportation infrastructure in terms of cost and public safety. Roads constructed over abandoned minesmore » are subject to potential differential settlement, subsidence, sinkholes, and/or catastrophic collapse. Thus, there is a need to utilize geophysical imaging technologies to accurately locate old mine works. Several surface and borehole geophysical imaging methods and mapping techniques were employed at a known abandoned coal mine in eastern Illinois to investigate which method best map the location and extent of old works. These methods included: 1) high-resolution seismic (HRS) using compressional P-wave (HRPW) and S-wave (HRSW) reflection collected with 3-D techniques; 2) crosshole seismic tomography (XHT); 3) guided waves; 4) reverse vertical seismic profiling (RVSP); and 5) borehole sonar mapping. In addition, several exploration borings were drilled to confirm the presence of the imaged mine voids. The results indicated that the RVSP is the most viable method to accurately detect the subsurface voids with horizontal accuracy of two to five feet. This method was then applied at several other locations in Colorado with various topographic, geologic, and cultural settings for the same purpose. This paper presents the significant results obtained from the geophysical investigations in Illinois.« less

The Influence of Surface Coal Mining on Runoff Processes and Stream Chemistry in the Elk Valley, British Colubmbia, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carey, S. K.; Wellen, C. C.; Shatilla, N. J.

2015-12-01

Surface mining is a common method of accessing coal. In high-elevation environments, vegetation and soils are typically removed prior to the blasting of overburden rock, thereby allowing access to mineable ore. Following this, the removed overburden rock is deposited in adjacent valleys as waste rock spoils. Previous research has identified that areas downstream of surface coal mining have impaired water quality, yet there is limited information about the interaction of hydrology and geochemistry across a range of mining conditions, particularly at the headwater scale. Here, we provide an analysis of an extensive long-term data set of geochemistry and flows across a gradient of coal mining in the Elk Valley, British Columbia, Canada. This work is part of a broader R&D program examining the influence of surface coal mining on hydrological and water quality responses in the Elk Valley aimed at informing effective management responses. Results indicate that water from waste rock piles has an ionic profile distinct from unimpacted catchments. While the concentration of geochemicals increased with the degree of mine impact, the control of hydrological transport capacity over geochemical export did not vary with degree of mine impact. Geochemical export in mine-influenced catchments was limited more strongly by transport capacity than supply, implying that more water moving through the waste rock mobilized more geochemicals. Placement of waste rock within the catchment (headwaters or outlet) did not affect chemical concentrations but did alter the timing with which chemically distinct water mixed. This work advances on results reported earlier using empirical models of selenium loading and further highlights the importance of limiting water inputs into waste rock piles.

Mineral Mapping with Imaging Spectroscopy: The Ray Mine, AZ

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, Roger N.; Vance, J. Sam; Livo, K. Eric; Green, Robert O.

1998-01-01

Mineral maps generated for the Ray Mine, Arizona were analyzed to determine if imaging spectroscopy can provide accurate information for environmental management of active and abandoned mine regions. The Ray Mine, owned by the ASARCO Corporation, covers an area of 5700 acres and is situated in Pinal County, Arizona about 70 miles north of Tucson near Hayden, Arizona. This open-pit mine has been a major source of copper since 1911, producing an estimated 4.5 million tons of copper since its inception. Until 1955 mining was accomplished by underground block caving and shrinkage stope methods. (excavation by working in stepped series usually employed in a vertical or steeply inclined orebody) In 1955, the mine was completely converted to open pit method mining with the bulk of the production from sulfide ore using recovery by concentrating and smelting. Beginning in 1969 a significant production contribution has been from the leaching and solvent extraction-electrowinnowing method of silicate and oxide ores. Published reserves in the deposit as of 1992 are 1.1 billion tons at 0.6 percent copper. The Environmental Protection Agency, in conjunction with ASARCO, and NASA/JPL obtained AVIRIS data over the mine in 1997 as part of the EPA Advanced Measurement Initiative (AMI) (Tom Mace, Principal Investigator). This AVIRIS data set is being used to compare and contrast the accuracy and environmental monitoring capabilities of remote sensing technologies: visible-near-IR imaging spectroscopy, multispectral visible and, near-IR sensors, thermal instruments, and radar platforms. The goal of this effort is to determine if these various technologies provide useful information for envirorunental management of active and abandoned mine sites in the arid western United States. This paper focuses on the analysis of AVIRIS data for assessing the impact of the Ray Mine on Mineral Creek. Mineral Creek flows to the Gila River. This paper discusses our preliminary AVIRIS mineral mapping and environmental findings.

Research on parallel algorithm for sequential pattern mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Lijuan; Qin, Bai; Wang, Yu; Hao, Zhongxiao

2008-03-01

Sequential pattern mining is the mining of frequent sequences related to time or other orders from the sequence database. Its initial motivation is to discover the laws of customer purchasing in a time section by finding the frequent sequences. In recent years, sequential pattern mining has become an important direction of data mining, and its application field has not been confined to the business database and has extended to new data sources such as Web and advanced science fields such as DNA analysis. The data of sequential pattern mining has characteristics as follows: mass data amount and distributed storage. Most existing sequential pattern mining algorithms haven't considered the above-mentioned characteristics synthetically. According to the traits mentioned above and combining the parallel theory, this paper puts forward a new distributed parallel algorithm SPP(Sequential Pattern Parallel). The algorithm abides by the principal of pattern reduction and utilizes the divide-and-conquer strategy for parallelization. The first parallel task is to construct frequent item sets applying frequent concept and search space partition theory and the second task is to structure frequent sequences using the depth-first search method at each processor. The algorithm only needs to access the database twice and doesn't generate the candidated sequences, which abates the access time and improves the mining efficiency. Based on the random data generation procedure and different information structure designed, this paper simulated the SPP algorithm in a concrete parallel environment and implemented the AprioriAll algorithm. The experiments demonstrate that compared with AprioriAll, the SPP algorithm had excellent speedup factor and efficiency.

TERATOLOGY v2.0 – building a path forward

EPA Science Inventory

Unraveling the complex relationships between environmental factors and early life susceptibility in assessing the risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes requires advanced knowledge of biological systems. Large datasets and deep data-mining tools are emerging resources for predictive...

Operational Lessons Leaned During bioreactor Demonstrations for Acid Rock Drainage Treatment

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Mine Waste Technology Program (MWTP) has emphasized the development of biologically-based treatment technologies for acid rock drainage (ARD). Progressively evolving technology demonstrations have resulted in significant advances in sulf...

Superconducting magnetic sensors for mine detection and classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clem, Ted R.; Koch, Roger H.; Keefe, George A.

1995-06-01

Sensors incorporating Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) provide the greatest sensitivity for magnetic anomaly detection available with current technology. During the 1980's, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Coastal Systems Station (CSS) developed a superconducting magnetic sensor capable of operation outside of the laboratory environment. This sensor demonstrated rugged, reliable performance even onboard undersea towed platforms. With this sensor, the CSS was able to demonstrate buried mine detection for the US Navy. Subsequently the sensor was incorporated into a multisensor suite onboard an underwater towed vehicle to provide a robust mine hunting capability for the Magnetic and Acoustic Detection of Mines (MADOM) project. This sensor technology utilized niobium superconducting componentry cooled by liquid helium to temperatures on the order of 4 degrees Kelvin (K). In the late 1980's a new class of superconductors was discovered with critical temperatures above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77K). This advance has opened up new opportunities, especially for mine reconnaissance and hunting from small unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). This paper describes the magnetic sensor detection and classification concept developed for MADOM. In addition, opportunities for UUV operations made possible with high Tc technology and the Navy's current efforts in this area will be addressed.

Advances in algorithm fusion for automated sea mine detection and classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dobeck, Gerald J.; Cobb, J. Tory

2002-11-01

Along with other sensors, the Navy uses high-resolution sonar to detect and classify sea mines in mine-hunting operations. Scientists and engineers have devoted substantial effort to the development of automated detection and classification (D/C) algorithms for these high-resolution systems. Several factors spurred these efforts, including: (1) aids for operators to reduce work overload; (2) more optimal use of all available data; and (3) the introduction of unmanned minehunting systems. The environments where sea mines are typically laid (harbor areas, shipping lanes, and the littorals) give rise to many false alarms caused by natural, biologic, and manmade clutter. The objective of the automated D/C algorithms is to eliminate most of these false alarms while maintaining a very high probability of mine detection and classification (PdPc). In recent years, the benefits of fusing the outputs of multiple D/C algorithms (Algorithm Fusion) have been studied. To date, the results have been remarkable, including reliable robustness to new environments. In this paper a brief history of existing Algorithm Fusion technology and some techniques recently used to improve performance are presented. An exploration of new developments is presented in conclusion.

Getting the jump on Mother nature: the advancing technology of applied botany will speed reclamation of mined land

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

By propagating native or indigenous plants in greenhouses on a speeded-up schedule, much guesswork is being taken out of revegetating mined land. Native Plants Inc., which tricks nature by reproducing the biological sequence of plants in a fraction of the natural time, offers reclaimers of disturbed land the plants they want in any quantity on very short notice. Prior to planting, seeds are treated to break their dormancy code. The plants are grown in tubepaks that promote root growth, grow both night and day, and have CO/sub 2/ injected into the air. The company reports a 97% success rate inmore » transplanting its seedlings. Cloning and the unlocking of the germination secrets of plants have great potential for speeding the restoration of mined land. A micropropagation (or tissue culture), whereby parts of a whole plant are removed, sterilized, and grown on a specific nutrient medium are being considered. This technology affords a high degree of selectivity and rapid plant propagation and has far-reaching implications for mine operators faced with the challenges of reclaiming mined land. (DP)« less

Using text-mining techniques in electronic patient records to identify ADRs from medicine use.

PubMed

Warrer, Pernille; Hansen, Ebba Holme; Juhl-Jensen, Lars; Aagaard, Lise

2012-05-01

This literature review included studies that use text-mining techniques in narrative documents stored in electronic patient records (EPRs) to investigate ADRs. We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts without restrictions from origin until July 2011. We included empirically based studies on text mining of electronic patient records (EPRs) that focused on detecting ADRs, excluding those that investigated adverse events not related to medicine use. We extracted information on study populations, EPR data sources, frequencies and types of the identified ADRs, medicines associated with ADRs, text-mining algorithms used and their performance. Seven studies, all from the United States, were eligible for inclusion in the review. Studies were published from 2001, the majority between 2009 and 2010. Text-mining techniques varied over time from simple free text searching of outpatient visit notes and inpatient discharge summaries to more advanced techniques involving natural language processing (NLP) of inpatient discharge summaries. Performance appeared to increase with the use of NLP, although many ADRs were still missed. Due to differences in study design and populations, various types of ADRs were identified and thus we could not make comparisons across studies. The review underscores the feasibility and potential of text mining to investigate narrative documents in EPRs for ADRs. However, more empirical studies are needed to evaluate whether text mining of EPRs can be used systematically to collect new information about ADRs. © 2011 The Authors. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology © 2011 The British Pharmacological Society.

Using text-mining techniques in electronic patient records to identify ADRs from medicine use

PubMed Central

Warrer, Pernille; Hansen, Ebba Holme; Juhl-Jensen, Lars; Aagaard, Lise

2012-01-01

This literature review included studies that use text-mining techniques in narrative documents stored in electronic patient records (EPRs) to investigate ADRs. We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts without restrictions from origin until July 2011. We included empirically based studies on text mining of electronic patient records (EPRs) that focused on detecting ADRs, excluding those that investigated adverse events not related to medicine use. We extracted information on study populations, EPR data sources, frequencies and types of the identified ADRs, medicines associated with ADRs, text-mining algorithms used and their performance. Seven studies, all from the United States, were eligible for inclusion in the review. Studies were published from 2001, the majority between 2009 and 2010. Text-mining techniques varied over time from simple free text searching of outpatient visit notes and inpatient discharge summaries to more advanced techniques involving natural language processing (NLP) of inpatient discharge summaries. Performance appeared to increase with the use of NLP, although many ADRs were still missed. Due to differences in study design and populations, various types of ADRs were identified and thus we could not make comparisons across studies. The review underscores the feasibility and potential of text mining to investigate narrative documents in EPRs for ADRs. However, more empirical studies are needed to evaluate whether text mining of EPRs can be used systematically to collect new information about ADRs. PMID:22122057

Coal mine bumps as related to geologic features in the northern part of the Sunnyside District, Carbon County, Utah

USGS Publications Warehouse

Osterwald, Frank W.; Dunrud, C. Richard; Collins, Donley S.

1993-01-01

Coal mine bumps, which are violent, spontaneous, and often catastrophic disruptions of coal and rock, were common in the Sunnyside coal mining district, Utah, before the introduction of protective-engineering methods, modern room-and-pillar retreat mining with continuous mining machines, and particularly modern longwall mining. The coal at Sunnyside, when stressed during mining, fails continuously with many popping, snapping, and banging noises. Although most of the bumps are beneficial because they make mining easier, many of the large ones are dangerous and in the past caused injuries and fatalities, particularly with room- and-pillar mining methods used in the early mining operations. Geologic mapping of underground mine openings revealed many types of deformational features, some pre-mine and some post-mine in age. Stresses resulting from mining are concentrated near the mine openings; if openings are driven at large angles to small pre-mine deformational features, particularly shatter zones in coal, abnormal stress buildups may occur and violent bumps may result. Other geologic features, such as ripple marks, oriented sand grains, intertongued rock contacts, trace fossils, and load casts, also influence the occurrence of bumps by impeding slip of coal and rocks along bedding planes. The stress field in the coal also varies markedly because of the rough ridge and canyon topography. These features may allow excessively large stress components to accumulate. At many places, the stresses that contribute to deformation and failures of mine openings are oriented horizontally. The stratigraphy of the rocks immediately above and below the mined coal bed strongly influences the deformation of the mine openings in response to stress accumulations. Triaxial compressive testing of coal from the Sunnyside No.1 and No.3 Mines indicates that the strength of the coal increases several times as the confining (lateral) stress is increased. Strengths of cores cut from single large blocks of coal vary widely. Although the strengths of coal cores increase slowly at high levels of confining stress, the coal in Sunnyside No. 1 Mine is slightly stronger in laboratory tests than coal in Sunnyside No.3 Mine. The coal in No.1 Mine probably can store larger amounts of stress than coal in the No.3 Mine, which may account for the apparently greater number of violent bumps in No.1 Mine. The strength of coal, and its ability to store stress before failure, may correlate in part with chemical composition, particularly with the amounts of benzene ring compounds in vitrain; coal with relatively large amounts of benzene ring compounds is stronger than coal with lesser amounts of these compounds. Alternatively, the chemical composition of coal may affect its response to stress. Increasing contents of kaolinite in coal appear to reduce its compressive strength at low confining stresses, resulting in easy failures of pillars and ribs in mine openings. Applications of the geologic factors outlined in this report, carefully coupled with advanced modern engineering methods, have markedly reduced the hazards from coal mine bumps and related failures of mine openings at Sunnyside. Similar studies probably could aid in reducing bump-related hazards in other coal mining areas.

What is Mine is Yours: The Art of Operational Integration

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-05-10

United States Army School of Advanced Military Studies United States Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 2016...9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S ACRONYM(S) School of Advanced Military Studies 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S...services or national boundaries. Two contrasting World War II case studies , L TG Patch in southern France and L TG Stilwell in Burma, will be used to

Cytokine profile determined by data-mining analysis set into clusters of non-small-cell lung cancer patients according to prognosis.

PubMed

Barrera, L; Montes-Servín, E; Barrera, A; Ramírez-Tirado, L A; Salinas-Parra, F; Bañales-Méndez, J L; Sandoval-Ríos, M; Arrieta, Ó

2015-02-01

Immunoregulatory cytokines may play a fundamental role in tumor growth and metastases. Their effects are mediated through complex regulatory networks. Human cytokine profiles could define patient subgroups and represent new potential biomarkers. The aim of this study was to associate a cytokine profile obtained through data mining with the clinical characteristics of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We conducted a prospective study of the plasma levels of 14 immunoregulatory cytokines by ELISA and a cytometric bead array assay in 110 NSCLC patients before chemotherapy and 25 control subjects. Cytokine levels and data-mining profiles were associated with clinical, quality of life and pathological outcomes. NSCLC patients had higher levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-12p70, IL-17a and interferon (IFN)-γ, and lower levels of IL-33 and IL-29 compared with controls. The pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1b, IL-6 and IL-8 were associated with lower hemoglobin levels, worse functional performance status (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, ECOG), fatigue and hyporexia. The anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4, IL-10 and IL-33 were associated with anorexia and lower body mass index. We identified three clusters of patients according to data-mining analysis with different overall survival (OS; 25.4, 16.8 and 5.09 months, respectively, P = 0.0012). Multivariate analysis showed that ECOG performance status and data-mining clusters were significantly associated with OS (RR 3.59, [95% CI 1.9-6.7], P < 0.001 and 2.2, [1.2-3.8], P = 0.005). Our results provide evidence that complex cytokine networks may be used to identify patient subgroups with different prognoses in advanced NSCLC. These cytokines may represent potential biomarkers, particularly in the immunotherapy era in cancer research. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Operational Lessons Learned During Bioreactor Demonstrations for Acid Rock Drainage Treatment

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mine Waste Technology Program (MWTP) has emphasized the development of biologically-based treatment technologies for acid rock drainage (ARD). Progressively evolving technology demonstrations have resulted in significant advances in sul...

Advanced cogeneration research study: Executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bluhm, S. A.; Moore, N.; Rosenberg, L.; Slonski, M.

1983-01-01

This study provides a broad based overview of selected areas relevant to the development of a comprehensive Southern California Edison (SCE) advanced cogeneration project. The areas studied are: (1) Cogeneration potential in the SCE service territory; (2) Advanced cogeneration technologies; and (3) Existing cogeneration computer models. An estimated 3700 MW sub E could potentially be generated from existing industries in the Southern California Edison service territory using cogeneration technology. Of this total, current technology could provide 2600 MW sub E and advanced technology could provide 1100 MW sub E. The manufacturing sector (SIC Codes 20-39) was found to have the highest average potential for current cogeneration technology. The mining sector (SIC Codes 10-14) was found to have the highest potential for advanced technology.

Geospatial Image Mining For Nuclear Proliferation Detection: Challenges and New Opportunities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vatsavai, Raju; Bhaduri, Budhendra L; Cheriyadat, Anil M

2010-01-01

With increasing understanding and availability of nuclear technologies, and increasing persuasion of nuclear technologies by several new countries, it is increasingly becoming important to monitor the nuclear proliferation activities. There is a great need for developing technologies to automatically or semi-automatically detect nuclear proliferation activities using remote sensing. Images acquired from earth observation satellites is an important source of information in detecting proliferation activities. High-resolution remote sensing images are highly useful in verifying the correctness, as well as completeness of any nuclear program. DOE national laboratories are interested in detecting nuclear proliferation by developing advanced geospatial image mining algorithms. Inmore » this paper we describe the current understanding of geospatial image mining techniques and enumerate key gaps and identify future research needs in the context of nuclear proliferation.« less

Blast optimization for improved dragline productivity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Humphreys, M.; Baldwin, G.

1994-12-31

A project aimed at blast optimization for large open pit coal mines is utilizing blast monitoring and analysis techniques, advanced dragline monitoring equipment, and blast simulation software, to assess the major controlling factors affecting both blast performance and subsequent dragline productivity. This has involved collaborative work between the explosives supplier, mine operator, monitoring equipment manufacturer, and a mining research organization. The results from trial blasts and subsequently monitored dragline production have yielded promising results and continuing studies are being conducted as part of a blast optimization program. It should be stressed that the optimization of blasting practices for improved draglinemore » productivity is a site specific task, achieved through controlled and closely monitored procedures. The benefits achieved at one location can not be simply transferred to another minesite unless similar improvement strategies are first implemented.« less

Realizing Modeling and Mapping tools to Study the Upsurge of Noise Pollution as a Result of Open-Cast Mining and Transportation Activities

PubMed Central

Lokhande, Satish K.; Jain, Mohindra C.; Dhawale, Satyajeet A.; Gautam, Rakesh; Bodhe, Ghanshyam L.

2018-01-01

Introduction: In open-cast mines, noise pollution has become a serious concern due to the extreme use of heavy earth moving machinery (HEMM). Materials and Methods: This study is focused to measure and assess the effects of the existing noise levels of major operational mines in the Keonjhar, Sundergadh, and Mayurbhanj districts of Odisha, India. The transportation noise levels were also considered in this study, which was predicted using the modified Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) model. Result and Discussion: It was observed that noise induced by HEMM such as rock breakers, jackhammers, dumpers, and excavators, blasting noise in the mining terrain, as well as associated transportation noise became a major source of annoyance to the habitants living in proximity to the mines. The noise produced by mechanized mining operations was observed between 74.3 and 115.2 dB(A), and its impact on residential areas was observed between 49.4 and 58.9 dB(A). In addition, the noise contour maps of sound level dispersion were demonstrated with the utilization of advanced noise prediction software tools for better understanding. Conclusion: Finally, the predicted values at residential zone and traffic noise are correlated with observed values, and the coefficient of determination, R2, was calculated to be 0.6891 and 0.5967, respectively. PMID:29676297

Effect of external digital elevation model on monitoring of mine subsidence by two-pass differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, Qiuxiang; Gao, Tengfei; Liu, Guolin; Wang, Zhiwei

2017-04-01

The external digital elevation model (DEM) error is one of the main factors that affect the accuracy of mine subsidence monitored by two-pass differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR), which has been widely used in monitoring mining-induced subsidence. The theoretical relationship between external DEM error and monitored deformation error is derived based on the principles of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DInSAR) and two-pass DInSAR. Taking the Dongtan and Yangcun mine areas of Jining as test areas, the difference and accuracy of 1:50000, ASTER GDEM V2, and SRTM DEMs are compared and analyzed. Two interferometric pairs of Advanced Land Observing Satellite Phased Array L-band SAR covering the test areas are processed using two-pass DInSAR with three external DEMs to compare and analyze the effect of three external DEMs on monitored mine subsidence in high- and low-coherence subsidence regions. Moreover, the reliability and accuracy of the three DInSAR-monitored results are compared and verified with leveling-measured subsidence values. Results show that the effect of external DEM on mine subsidence monitored by two-pass DInSAR is not only related to radar look angle, perpendicular baseline, slant range, and external DEM error, but also to the ground resolution of DEM, the magnitude of subsidence, and the coherence of test areas.

International SUSMIN-project aims at sustainable gold mining in EU

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Backnäs, Soile; Neitola, Raisa; Turunen, Kaisa; Lima, Alexandre; Fiúza, António; Szlachta, Malgorzata; Wójtowicz, Patryk; Maftei, Raluca; Munteanu, Marian; Alakangas, Lena; Baciu, Calin; Fernández, Dámaris

2015-04-01

Although the gold demand has been constantly increasing in past years, the commodity findings have been decreasing and the extraction of gold has complicated due to increasing complexity and decreasing grade of the ores. Additionally, even gold mining could increase economical development, it has also challenges in eco-efficiency and extraction methods (e.g. cyanide). Thus, the novel energy and resource-efficient methods and technologies for mineral processing should be developed to concentrate selectively different gold bearing minerals. Furthermore, technologies for efficient treatment of mine waters, sustainable management of wastes, and methods to diminish environmental and social impacts of mining are needed. These problems will be addressed by the three year long project SUSMIN. The SUSMIN-project identifies and evaluates environmental impacts and economical challenges of gold mining within EU. The objective of the project is to increase the transnational cooperation and to support environmentally, socially and economically sustainable viable gold production. The focus is to develop and test geophysical techniques for gold exploration, eco-efficient ore beneficiation methods and alternatives for cyanide leaching. Additionally, the research will improve treatment methods for mine waters by the development and testing of advanced adsorbents. The research on socio-economic issues pursues to develop tools for enhancing the mechanisms of the corporate social responsibility as well as community engagement and management of the relations with the stakeholders. Moreover, with the environmental risk assessment and better knowledge of the geochemistry and long-term transformation of the contaminants in mining wastes and mine waters, the mining companies are able to predict and prevent the impacts to the surrounding environment, resulting in an improved environmental management solution. The SUSMIN consortium led by Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) includes seven research partners from six EU member states Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Romania, Poland and Ireland. Additionally eight globally on mining industry working industry partners will contribute in the SUSMIN consortium, so implementation of results from the project will translate into direct and significant economic benefits.

Mining the Home Environment.

PubMed

Cook, Diane J; Krishnan, Narayanan

2014-12-01

Individuals spend a majority of their time in their home or workplace and for many, these places are our sanctuaries. As society and technology advance there is a growing interest in improving the intelligence of the environments in which we live and work. By filling home environments with sensors and collecting data during daily routines, researchers can gain insights on human daily behavior and the impact of behavior on the residents and their environments. In this article we provide an overview of the data mining opportunities and challenges that smart environments provide for researchers and offer some suggestions for future work in this area.

Mining the Home Environment

PubMed Central

Cook, Diane J.; Krishnan, Narayanan

2014-01-01

Individuals spend a majority of their time in their home or workplace and for many, these places are our sanctuaries. As society and technology advance there is a growing interest in improving the intelligence of the environments in which we live and work. By filling home environments with sensors and collecting data during daily routines, researchers can gain insights on human daily behavior and the impact of behavior on the residents and their environments. In this article we provide an overview of the data mining opportunities and challenges that smart environments provide for researchers and offer some suggestions for future work in this area. PMID:25506128

Application of underground microseismic monitoring for ground failure and secure longwall coal mining operation: A case study in an Indian mine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghosh, G. K.; Sivakumar, C.

2018-03-01

Longwall mining technique has been widely used around the globe due to its safe mining process. However, mining operations are suspended when various problems arise like collapse of roof falls, cracks and fractures propagation in the roof and complexity in roof strata behaviors. To overcome these colossal problems, an underground real time microseismic monitoring technique has been implemented in the working panel-P2 in the Rajendra longwall underground coal mine at South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), India. The target coal seams appears at the panel P-2 within a depth of 70 m to 76 m. In this process, 10 to 15 uniaxial geophones were placed inside a borehole at depth range of 40 m to 60 m located over the working panel-P2 with high rock quality designation value for better seismic signal. Various microseismic events were recorded with magnitude ranging from -5 to 2 in the Richter scale. The time-series processing was carried out to get various seismic parameters like activity rate, potential energy, viscosity rate, seismic moment, energy index, apparent volume and potential energy with respect to time. The used of these parameters helped tracing the events, understanding crack and fractures propagation and locating both high and low stress distribution zones prior to roof fall occurrence. In most of the cases, the events were divided into three stage processes: initial or preliminary, middle or building, and final or falling. The results of this study reveal that underground microseismic monitoring provides sufficient prior information of underground weighting events. The information gathered during the study was conveyed to the mining personnel in advance prior to roof fall event. This permits to take appropriate action for safer mining operations and risk reduction during longwall operation.

LLNL electro-optical mine detection program

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anderson, C.; Aimonetti, W.; Barth, M.

1994-09-30

Under funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and the US Marine Corps (USMC), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has directed a program aimed at improving detection capabilities against buried mines and munitions. The program has provided a national test facility for buried mines in arid environments, compiled and distributed an extensive data base of infrared (IR), ground penetrating radar (GPR), and other measurements made at that site, served as a host for other organizations wishing to make measurements, made considerable progress in the use of ground penetrating radar for mine detection, and worked on the difficult problem ofmore » sensor fusion as applied to buried mine detection. While the majority of our effort has been concentrated on the buried mine problem, LLNL has worked with the U.S.M.C. on surface mine problems as well, providing data and analysis to support the COBRA (Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis) program. The original aim of the experimental aspect of the program was the utilization of multiband infrared approaches for the detection of buried mines. Later the work was extended to a multisensor investigation, including sensors other than infrared imagers. After an early series of measurements, it was determined that further progress would require a larger test facility in a natural environment, so the Buried Object Test Facility (BOTF) was constructed at the Nevada Test Site. After extensive testing, with sensors spanning the electromagnetic spectrum from the near ultraviolet to radio frequencies, possible paths for improvement were: improved spatial resolution providing better ground texture discrimination; analysis which involves more complicated spatial queueing and filtering; additional IR bands using imaging spectroscopy; the use of additional sensors other than IR and the use of data fusion techniques with multi-sensor data; and utilizing time dependent observables like temperature.« less

Using Drone Imagery and Photogrammetry to Map Basin Stratigraphy and Structures Exposed in Mine, Road, and Arroyo Outcrops, Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur, Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banes, A.; Alvarez Ortega, K. G.; Henry, M.; Niemi, T.

2017-12-01

During the 2017 Baja Basins Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), a DJI Phantom 3 Advanced Quadcopter drone equipped with a GPS-enabled, 12 Megapixel camera was manually flown to collect aerial photographs of several geologic outcrops on the Minera Boléo and Lucifer mines in central Baja California Sur. The strip mine faces, roadcuts, and arroyos exposed Neogene to Quaternary sediments of the Santa Rosalía basin including the basal Cu-Zn-Mn-Co-bearing Miocene Boléo Formation that is actively being mined. It is overlain by Plio-Quaternary marine and non-marine deposits. Photographs were collected with a 70% overlap and processed into geographically-referenced, orthophotomosaics using Agisoft Photoscan. The output models have an adequate resolution for viewing bedding and fault characteristics. Measurements can be made inside the 3D models, making drones a useful tool for studying the geometry of stratigraphic, structural, and geomorphologic features. The studied sites included: 1) roadcuts on Mesa Soledad that exposed oblique-slip faults and syntectonically deposited non-marine and marine conglomerates and sandy, fossil-rich Pliocene beach sediment; 2) outcrops of the Boléo Fm in the Texcoco mine area that showed the detailed stratigraphic relationship between ore seams (mantos) and faults; 3) outcrops where sandstone samples were collected for detrital zircon geochronology; 4) strip mine 3120 that exposed faults and folds in the Boléo Formation; and 5) faults in Miocene volcanic rocks in the Arroyo Infierno near the Lucifer mine. This study shows that photogrammetry and modeling of geologic structures exposed in mine and road outcrops can provide useful information for reconstructing basin architecture and clarifying structural evolution of the Santa Rosalia Basin.

The 1999 Mw 7.1 Hector Mine, California, earthquake: A test of the stress shadow hypothesis?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Harris, R.A.; Simpson, R.W.

2002-01-01

We test the stress shadow hypothesis for large earthquake interactions by examining the relationship between two large earthquakes that occurred in the Mojave Desert of southern California, the 1992 Mw 7.3 Landers and 1999 Mw 7.1 Hector Mine earthquakes. We want to determine if the 1999 Hector Mine earthquake occurred at a location where the Coulomb stress was increased (earthquake advance, stress trigger) or decreased (earthquake delay, stress shadow) by the previous large earthquake. Using four models of the Landers rupture and a range of possible hypocentral planes for the Hector Mine earthquake, we discover that most scenarios yield a Landers-induced relaxation (stress shadow) on the Hector Mine hypocentral plane. Although this result would seem to weigh against the stress shadow hypothesis, the results become considerably more uncertain when the effects of a nearby Landers aftershock, the 1992 ML 5.4 Pisgah earthquake, are taken into account. We calculate the combined static Coulomb stress changes due to the Landers and Pisgah earthquakes to range from -0.3 to +0.3 MPa (- 3 to +3 bars) at the possible Hector Mine hypocenters, depending on choice of rupture model and hypocenter. These varied results imply that the Hector Mine earthquake does not provide a good test of the stress shadow hypothesis for large earthquake interactions. We use a simple approach, that of static dislocations in an elastic half-space, yet we still obtain a wide range of both negative and positive Coulomb stress changes. Our findings serve as a caution that more complex models purporting to explain the triggering or shadowing relationship between the 1992 Landers and 1999 Hector Mine earthquakes need to also consider the parametric and geometric uncertainties raised here.

Inside KSC! for May 18, 2018

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-05-18

This week in space news, college students converge on the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for the 9th annual Robotic Mining Competition, and the Advanced Plant Habitat base is readied for its flight to the International Space Station aboard the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft.

The United Mine Workers of American and the recognition of occupational respiratory diseases, 1902-1968.

PubMed

Derickson, A

1991-06-01

This study examines the early efforts of the United Mine Workers of America to illuminate the problem of occupational respiratory diseases in the coal fields. The union used the hearings of the US Anthracite Coal Strike Commission of 1902-3 to draw public attention to "miners' asthma." In 1915, it began to agitate for the provision of workers' compensation benefits for victims of this disorder. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the union's Welfare and Retirement Fund disseminated information on advances in understanding chronic pulmonary diseases of mining. In particular, the miners' fund promoted the British conceptualization of a distinctive coal workers' pneumoconiosis. At the same time, the staff of the union health plan pressed the US Public Health Service and the Pennsylvania Department of Health to investigate the prevalence of occupational respiratory diseases among bituminous miners. Taken together, these endeavors contributed significantly to growing recognition of the severity and extent of this important public health problem and thus helped lay the foundation for the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969.

The United Mine Workers of American and the recognition of occupational respiratory diseases, 1902-1968.

PubMed Central

Derickson, A

1991-01-01

This study examines the early efforts of the United Mine Workers of America to illuminate the problem of occupational respiratory diseases in the coal fields. The union used the hearings of the US Anthracite Coal Strike Commission of 1902-3 to draw public attention to "miners' asthma." In 1915, it began to agitate for the provision of workers' compensation benefits for victims of this disorder. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the union's Welfare and Retirement Fund disseminated information on advances in understanding chronic pulmonary diseases of mining. In particular, the miners' fund promoted the British conceptualization of a distinctive coal workers' pneumoconiosis. At the same time, the staff of the union health plan pressed the US Public Health Service and the Pennsylvania Department of Health to investigate the prevalence of occupational respiratory diseases among bituminous miners. Taken together, these endeavors contributed significantly to growing recognition of the severity and extent of this important public health problem and thus helped lay the foundation for the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. Images p784-a p787-a PMID:1827571

An Excel Solver Exercise to Introduce Nonlinear Regression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinder, Jonathan P.

2013-01-01

Business students taking business analytics courses that have significant predictive modeling components, such as marketing research, data mining, forecasting, and advanced financial modeling, are introduced to nonlinear regression using application software that is a "black box" to the students. Thus, although correct models are…

Data mining tools for the support of traffic signal timing plan development in arterial networks

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2001-05-01

Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) include large numbers of traffic sensors that collect enormous quantities of data. The data provided by ITS is necessary for advanced forms of control; however, basic forms of control, primarily time-of-day (T...

A systematic review of data mining and machine learning for air pollution epidemiology.

PubMed

Bellinger, Colin; Mohomed Jabbar, Mohomed Shazan; Zaïane, Osmar; Osornio-Vargas, Alvaro

2017-11-28

Data measuring airborne pollutants, public health and environmental factors are increasingly being stored and merged. These big datasets offer great potential, but also challenge traditional epidemiological methods. This has motivated the exploration of alternative methods to make predictions, find patterns and extract information. To this end, data mining and machine learning algorithms are increasingly being applied to air pollution epidemiology. We conducted a systematic literature review on the application of data mining and machine learning methods in air pollution epidemiology. We carried out our search process in PubMed, the MEDLINE database and Google Scholar. Research articles applying data mining and machine learning methods to air pollution epidemiology were queried and reviewed. Our search queries resulted in 400 research articles. Our fine-grained analysis employed our inclusion/exclusion criteria to reduce the results to 47 articles, which we separate into three primary areas of interest: 1) source apportionment; 2) forecasting/prediction of air pollution/quality or exposure; and 3) generating hypotheses. Early applications had a preference for artificial neural networks. In more recent work, decision trees, support vector machines, k-means clustering and the APRIORI algorithm have been widely applied. Our survey shows that the majority of the research has been conducted in Europe, China and the USA, and that data mining is becoming an increasingly common tool in environmental health. For potential new directions, we have identified that deep learning and geo-spacial pattern mining are two burgeoning areas of data mining that have good potential for future applications in air pollution epidemiology. We carried out a systematic review identifying the current trends, challenges and new directions to explore in the application of data mining methods to air pollution epidemiology. This work shows that data mining is increasingly being applied in air pollution epidemiology. The potential to support air pollution epidemiology continues to grow with advancements in data mining related to temporal and geo-spacial mining, and deep learning. This is further supported by new sensors and storage mediums that enable larger, better quality data. This suggests that many more fruitful applications can be expected in the future.

Toxicity assessment of the water used for human consumption from the Cameron/Tuba City abandoned uranium mining area prior/after the combined electrochemical treatment/advanced oxidation.

PubMed

Gajski, Goran; Oreščanin, Višnja; Gerić, Marko; Kollar, Robert; Lovrenčić Mikelić, Ivanka; Garaj-Vrhovac, Vera

2015-01-01

The purpose of this work was detailed physicochemical, radiological, and toxicological characterization of the composite sample of water intended for human consumption in the Cameron/Tuba City abandoned uranium mining area before and after a combined electrochemical/advanced oxidation treatment. Toxicological characterization was conducted on human lymphocytes using a battery of bioassays. On the bases of the tested parameters, it could be concluded that water used for drinking from the tested water sources must be strictly forbidden for human and/or animal consumption since it is extremely cytogenotoxic, with high oxidative stress potential. A combined electrochemical treatment and posttreatment with ozone and UV light decreased the level of all physicochemical and radiological parameters below the regulated values. Consequently, the purified sample was neither cytotoxic nor genotoxic, indicating that the presented method could be used for the improvement of water quality from the sites highly contaminated with the mixture of heavy metals and radionuclides.

Modeling process-structure-property relationships for additive manufacturing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Wentao; Lin, Stephen; Kafka, Orion L.; Yu, Cheng; Liu, Zeliang; Lian, Yanping; Wolff, Sarah; Cao, Jian; Wagner, Gregory J.; Liu, Wing Kam

2018-02-01

This paper presents our latest work on comprehensive modeling of process-structure-property relationships for additive manufacturing (AM) materials, including using data-mining techniques to close the cycle of design-predict-optimize. To illustrate the processstructure relationship, the multi-scale multi-physics process modeling starts from the micro-scale to establish a mechanistic heat source model, to the meso-scale models of individual powder particle evolution, and finally to the macro-scale model to simulate the fabrication process of a complex product. To link structure and properties, a highefficiency mechanistic model, self-consistent clustering analyses, is developed to capture a variety of material response. The model incorporates factors such as voids, phase composition, inclusions, and grain structures, which are the differentiating features of AM metals. Furthermore, we propose data-mining as an effective solution for novel rapid design and optimization, which is motivated by the numerous influencing factors in the AM process. We believe this paper will provide a roadmap to advance AM fundamental understanding and guide the monitoring and advanced diagnostics of AM processing.

Detection of interaction articles and experimental methods in biomedical literature.

PubMed

Schneider, Gerold; Clematide, Simon; Rinaldi, Fabio

2011-10-03

This article describes the approaches taken by the OntoGene group at the University of Zurich in dealing with two tasks of the BioCreative III competition: classification of articles which contain curatable protein-protein interactions (PPI-ACT) and extraction of experimental methods (PPI-IMT). Two main achievements are described in this paper: (a) a system for document classification which crucially relies on the results of an advanced pipeline of natural language processing tools; (b) a system which is capable of detecting all experimental methods mentioned in scientific literature, and listing them with a competitive ranking (AUC iP/R > 0.5). The results of the BioCreative III shared evaluation clearly demonstrate that significant progress has been achieved in the domain of biomedical text mining in the past few years. Our own contribution, together with the results of other participants, provides evidence that natural language processing techniques have become by now an integral part of advanced text mining approaches.

PDBj Mine: design and implementation of relational database interface for Protein Data Bank Japan

PubMed Central

Kinjo, Akira R.; Yamashita, Reiko; Nakamura, Haruki

2010-01-01

This article is a tutorial for PDBj Mine, a new database and its interface for Protein Data Bank Japan (PDBj). In PDBj Mine, data are loaded from files in the PDBMLplus format (an extension of PDBML, PDB's canonical XML format, enriched with annotations), which are then served for the user of PDBj via the worldwide web (WWW). We describe the basic design of the relational database (RDB) and web interfaces of PDBj Mine. The contents of PDBMLplus files are first broken into XPath entities, and these paths and data are indexed in the way that reflects the hierarchical structure of the XML files. The data for each XPath type are saved into the corresponding relational table that is named as the XPath itself. The generation of table definitions from the PDBMLplus XML schema is fully automated. For efficient search, frequently queried terms are compiled into a brief summary table. Casual users can perform simple keyword search, and 'Advanced Search' which can specify various conditions on the entries. More experienced users can query the database using SQL statements which can be constructed in a uniform manner. Thus, PDBj Mine achieves a combination of the flexibility of XML documents and the robustness of the RDB. Database URL: http://www.pdbj.org/ PMID:20798081

PDBj Mine: design and implementation of relational database interface for Protein Data Bank Japan.

PubMed

Kinjo, Akira R; Yamashita, Reiko; Nakamura, Haruki

2010-08-25

This article is a tutorial for PDBj Mine, a new database and its interface for Protein Data Bank Japan (PDBj). In PDBj Mine, data are loaded from files in the PDBMLplus format (an extension of PDBML, PDB's canonical XML format, enriched with annotations), which are then served for the user of PDBj via the worldwide web (WWW). We describe the basic design of the relational database (RDB) and web interfaces of PDBj Mine. The contents of PDBMLplus files are first broken into XPath entities, and these paths and data are indexed in the way that reflects the hierarchical structure of the XML files. The data for each XPath type are saved into the corresponding relational table that is named as the XPath itself. The generation of table definitions from the PDBMLplus XML schema is fully automated. For efficient search, frequently queried terms are compiled into a brief summary table. Casual users can perform simple keyword search, and 'Advanced Search' which can specify various conditions on the entries. More experienced users can query the database using SQL statements which can be constructed in a uniform manner. Thus, PDBj Mine achieves a combination of the flexibility of XML documents and the robustness of the RDB. Database URL: http://www.pdbj.org/

A Fiber Bragg Grating-Based Monitoring System for Roof Safety Control in Underground Coal Mining

PubMed Central

Zhao, Yiming; Zhang, Nong; Si, Guangyao

2016-01-01

Monitoring of roof activity is a primary measure adopted in the prevention of roof collapse accidents and functions to optimize and support the design of roadways in underground coalmines. However, traditional monitoring measures, such as using mechanical extensometers or electronic gauges, either require arduous underground labor or cannot function properly in the harsh underground environment. Therefore, in this paper, in order to break through this technological barrier, a novel monitoring system for roof safety control in underground coal mining, using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) material as a perceived element and transmission medium, has been developed. Compared with traditional monitoring equipment, the developed, novel monitoring system has the advantages of providing accurate, reliable, and continuous online monitoring of roof activities in underground coal mining. This is expected to further enable the prevention of catastrophic roof collapse accidents. The system has been successfully implemented at a deep hazardous roadway in Zhuji Coal Mine, China. Monitoring results from the study site have demonstrated the advantages of FBG-based sensors over traditional monitoring approaches. The dynamic impacts of progressive face advance on roof displacement and stress have been accurately captured by the novel roadway roof activity and safety monitoring system, which provided essential references for roadway support and design of the mine. PMID:27775657

Mineralogical and isotopic characterization of graphite deposits from the Anatectic Complex of Toledo, central Spain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martín-Méndez, Iván; Boixereu, Ester; Villaseca, Carlos

2016-06-01

Graphite is found dispersed in high-grade metapelitic rocks of the Anatectic Complex of Toledo (ACT) and was mined during the mid twentieth century in places where it has been concentrated (Guadamur and la Puebla de Montalbán mines). Some samples from these mines show variable but significant alteration intensity, reaching very low-T hydrothermal (supergene) conditions for some samples from the waste heap of the Guadamur site (<100 °C and 1 kbar). Micro-Raman and XRD data indicate that all the studied ACT graphite is of high crystallinity irrespective of the degree of hydrothermal alteration. Chemical differences were obtained for graphite δ13C composition. ACT granulitic graphite shows δ13CPDB values in the range of -20.5 to -27.8 ‰, indicating a biogenic origin. Interaction of graphite with hydrothermal fluids does not modify isotopic compositions even in the most transformed samples from mining sites. The different isotopic signatures of graphite from the mining sites reflect its contrasted primary carbon source. The high crystallinity of studied graphite makes this area of central Spain suitable for graphitic exploration and its potential exploitation, due to the low carbon content required for its viability and its strategic applications in advanced technologies, such as graphene synthesis.

Mining moving object trajectories in location-based services for spatio-temporal database update

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Danhuai; Cui, Weihong

2008-10-01

Advances in wireless transmission and mobile technology applied to LBS (Location-based Services) flood us with amounts of moving objects data. Vast amounts of gathered data from position sensors of mobile phones, PDAs, or vehicles hide interesting and valuable knowledge and describe the behavior of moving objects. The correlation between temporal moving patterns of moving objects and geo-feature spatio-temporal attribute was ignored, and the value of spatio-temporal trajectory data was not fully exploited too. Urban expanding or frequent town plan change bring about a large amount of outdated or imprecise data in spatial database of LBS, and they cannot be updated timely and efficiently by manual processing. In this paper we introduce a data mining approach to movement pattern extraction of moving objects, build a model to describe the relationship between movement patterns of LBS mobile objects and their environment, and put up with a spatio-temporal database update strategy in LBS database based on trajectories spatiotemporal mining. Experimental evaluation reveals excellent performance of the proposed model and strategy. Our original contribution include formulation of model of interaction between trajectory and its environment, design of spatio-temporal database update strategy based on moving objects data mining, and the experimental application of spatio-temporal database update by mining moving objects trajectories.

Remote health monitoring of heart failure with data mining via CART method on HRV features.

PubMed

Pecchia, Leandro; Melillo, Paolo; Bracale, Marcello

2011-03-01

Disease management programs, which use no advanced information and computer technology, are as effective as telemedicine but more efficient because less costly. We proposed a platform to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of home monitoring using data mining for early detection of any worsening in patient's condition. These worsenings could require more complex and expensive care if not recognized. In this letter, we briefly describe the remote health monitoring platform we designed and realized, which supports heart failure (HF) severity assessment offering functions of data mining based on the classification and regression tree method. The system developed achieved accuracy and a precision of 96.39% and 100.00% in detecting HF and of 79.31% and 82.35% in distinguishing severe versus mild HF, respectively. These preliminary results were achieved on public databases of signals to improve their reproducibility. Clinical trials involving local patients are still running and will require longer experimentation.

Methane drainage with horizontal boreholes in advance of longwall mining: an analysis. Final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gabello, D.P.; Felts, L.L.; Hayoz, F.P.

1981-05-01

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Morgantown Energy Technology Center has implemented a comprehensive program to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of coalbed methane as an energy resource. The program is directed toward solution of technical and institutional problems impeding the recovery and use of large quantities of methane contained in the nation's minable and unminable coalbeds. Conducted in direct support of the DOE Methane Recovery from Coalbeds Project, this study analyzes the economic aspects of a horizontal borehole methane recovery system integrated as part of a longwall mine operation. It establishes relationships between methane selling price and annualmore » mine production, methane production rate, and the methane drainage system capital investment. Results are encouraging, indicating that an annual coal production increase of approximately eight percent would offset all associated drainage costs over the range of methane production rates and capital investments considered.« less

Defining a successful commercial asteroid mining program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andrews, Dana G.; Bonner, K. D.; Butterworth, A. W.; Calvert, H. R.; Dagang, B. R. H.; Dimond, K. J.; Eckenroth, L. G.; Erickson, J. M.; Gilbertson, B. A.; Gompertz, N. R.; Igbinosun, O. J.; Ip, T. J.; Khan, B. H.; Marquez, S. L.; Neilson, N. M.; Parker, C. O.; Ransom, E. H.; Reeve, B. W.; Robinson, T. L.; Rogers, M.; Schuh, P. M.; Tom, C. J.; Wall, S. E.; Watanabe, N.; Yoo, C. J.

2015-03-01

This paper summarizes a commercial Asteroid Mining Architecture synthesized by the Senior Space Design Class at the University of Washington in Winter/Spring Quarters of 2013. The main author was the instructor for that class. These results use design-to-cost development methods and focused infrastructure advancements to identify and characterize a workable space industrialization architecture including space transportation elements, asteroid exploration and mining equipment, and the earth orbit infrastructure needed to make it all work. Cost analysis predicts that for an initial investment in time and money equivalent to that for the US North Slope Oil Field, the yearly world supply of Platinum Group Metals could be increased by 50%, roughly 1500 t of LOX/LH2 propellant/year would be available in LEO, and very low cost solar panels could be assembled at GEO using asteroidal materials. The investment also would have a discounted net present value return on investment of 22% over twenty years.

Applications of advanced transport aircraft in developing countries

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gobetz, F. W.; Assarabowski, R. J.; Leshane, A. A.

1978-01-01

Four representative market scenarios were studied to evaluate the relative performance of air-and surface-based transportation systems in meeting the needs of two developing contries, Brazil and Indonesia, which were selected for detailed case studies. The market scenarios were: remote mining, low-density transport, tropical forestry, and large cargo aircraft serving processing centers in resource-rich, remote areas. The long-term potential of various aircraft types, together with fleet requirements and necessary technology advances, is determined for each application.

A moving baseline for evaluation of advanced coal extraction systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bickerton, C. R.; Westerfield, M. D.

1981-01-01

Results from the initial effort to establish baseline economic performance comparators for a program whose intent is to define, develop, and demonstrate advanced systems suitable for coal resource extraction beyond the year 2000 are reported. Systems used were selected from contemporary coal mining technology and from conservation conjectures of year 2000 technology. The analysis was also based on a seam thickness of 6 ft. Therefore, the results are specific to the study systems and the selected seam extended to other seam thicknesses.

A data mining methodology for predicting early stage Parkinson’s disease using non-invasive, high-dimensional gait sensor data

PubMed Central

Tucker, Conrad; Han, Yixiang; Nembhard, Harriet Black; Lewis, Mechelle; Lee, Wang-Chien; Sterling, Nicholas W; Huang, Xuemei

2017-01-01

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurological disorder after Alzheimer’s disease. Key clinical features of PD are motor-related and are typically assessed by healthcare providers based on qualitative visual inspection of a patient’s movement/gait/posture. More advanced diagnostic techniques such as computed tomography scans that measure brain function, can be cost prohibitive and may expose patients to radiation and other harmful effects. To mitigate these challenges, and open a pathway to remote patient-physician assessment, the authors of this work propose a data mining driven methodology that uses low cost, non-invasive sensors to model and predict the presence (or lack therefore) of PD movement abnormalities and model clinical subtypes. The study presented here evaluates the discriminative ability of non-invasive hardware and data mining algorithms to classify PD cases and controls. A 10-fold cross validation approach is used to compare several data mining algorithms in order to determine that which provides the most consistent results when varying the subject gait data. Next, the predictive accuracy of the data mining model is quantified by testing it against unseen data captured from a test pool of subjects. The proposed methodology demonstrates the feasibility of using non-invasive, low cost, hardware and data mining models to monitor the progression of gait features outside of the traditional healthcare facility, which may ultimately lead to earlier diagnosis of emerging neurological diseases. PMID:29541376

Alkahest NuclearBLAST : a user-friendly BLAST management and analysis system

PubMed Central

Diener, Stephen E; Houfek, Thomas D; Kalat, Sam E; Windham, DE; Burke, Mark; Opperman, Charles; Dean, Ralph A

2005-01-01

Background - Sequencing of EST and BAC end datasets is no longer limited to large research groups. Drops in per-base pricing have made high throughput sequencing accessible to individual investigators. However, there are few options available which provide a free and user-friendly solution to the BLAST result storage and data mining needs of biologists. Results - Here we describe NuclearBLAST, a batch BLAST analysis, storage and management system designed for the biologist. It is a wrapper for NCBI BLAST which provides a user-friendly web interface which includes a request wizard and the ability to view and mine the results. All BLAST results are stored in a MySQL database which allows for more advanced data-mining through supplied command-line utilities or direct database access. NuclearBLAST can be installed on a single machine or clustered amongst a number of machines to improve analysis throughput. NuclearBLAST provides a platform which eases data-mining of multiple BLAST results. With the supplied scripts, the program can export data into a spreadsheet-friendly format, automatically assign Gene Ontology terms to sequences and provide bi-directional best hits between two datasets. Users with SQL experience can use the database to ask even more complex questions and extract any subset of data they require. Conclusion - This tool provides a user-friendly interface for requesting, viewing and mining of BLAST results which makes the management and data-mining of large sets of BLAST analyses tractable to biologists. PMID:15958161

Landfill mining: Development of a cost simulation model.

PubMed

Wolfsberger, Tanja; Pinkel, Michael; Polansek, Stephanie; Sarc, Renato; Hermann, Robert; Pomberger, Roland

2016-04-01

Landfill mining permits recovering secondary raw materials from landfills. Whether this purpose is economically feasible, however, is a matter of various aspects. One is the amount of recoverable secondary raw material (like metals) that can be exploited with a profit. Other influences are the costs for excavation, for processing the waste at the landfill site and for paying charges on the secondary disposal of waste. Depending on the objectives of a landfill mining project (like the recovery of a ferrous and/or a calorific fraction) these expenses and revenues are difficult to assess in advance. This situation complicates any previous assessment of the economic feasibility and is the reason why many landfills that might be suitable for landfill mining are continuingly operated as active landfills, generating aftercare costs and leaving potential hazards to later generations. This article presents a newly developed simulation model for landfill mining projects. It permits identifying the quantities and qualities of output flows that can be recovered by mining and by mobile on-site processing of the waste based on treatment equipment selected by the landfill operator. Thus, charges for disposal and expected revenues from secondary raw materials can be assessed. Furthermore, investment, personnel, operation, servicing and insurance costs are assessed and displayed, based on the selected mobile processing procedure and its throughput, among other things. For clarity, the simulation model is described in this article using the example of a real Austrian sanitary landfill. © The Author(s) 2016.

Real -time dispatching modelling for trucks with different capacities in open pit mines / Modelowanie w czasie rzeczywistym przewozów ciężarówek o różnej ładowności w kopalni odkrywkowej

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahangaran, Daryoush Kaveh; Yasrebi, Amir Bijan; Wetherelt, Andy; Foster, Patrick

2012-10-01

Application of fully automated systems for truck dispatching plays a major role in decreasing the transportation costs which often represent the majority of costs spent on open pit mining. Consequently, the application of a truck dispatching system has become fundamentally important in most of the world's open pit mines. Recent experiences indicate that by decreasing a truck's travelling time and the associated waiting time of its associated shovel then due to the application of a truck dispatching system the rate of production will be considerably improved. Computer-based truck dispatching systems using algorithms, advanced and accurate software are examples of these innovations. Developing an algorithm of a computer- based program appropriated to a specific mine's conditions is considered as one of the most important activities in connection with computer-based dispatching in open pit mines. In this paper the changing trend of programming and dispatching control algorithms and automation conditions will be discussed. Furthermore, since the transportation fleet of most mines use trucks with different capacities, innovative methods, operational optimisation techniques and the best possible methods for developing the required algorithm for real-time dispatching are selected by conducting research on mathematical-based planning methods. Finally, a real-time dispatching model compatible with the requirement of trucks with different capacities is developed by using two techniques of flow networks and integer programming.

30 CFR 57.4330 - Surface firefighting, evacuation, and rescue procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... NONMETAL MINES Fire Prevention and Control Firefighting Procedures/alarms/drills § 57.4330 Surface... coordinated in advance with available firefighting organizations. (b) Fire alarm procedures or systems shall be established to promptly warn every person who could be endangered by a fire. (c) Fire alarm...

30 CFR 57.4330 - Surface firefighting, evacuation, and rescue procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... NONMETAL MINES Fire Prevention and Control Firefighting Procedures/alarms/drills § 57.4330 Surface... coordinated in advance with available firefighting organizations. (b) Fire alarm procedures or systems shall be established to promptly warn every person who could be endangered by a fire. (c) Fire alarm...

30 CFR 57.4330 - Surface firefighting, evacuation, and rescue procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... NONMETAL MINES Fire Prevention and Control Firefighting Procedures/alarms/drills § 57.4330 Surface... coordinated in advance with available firefighting organizations. (b) Fire alarm procedures or systems shall be established to promptly warn every person who could be endangered by a fire. (c) Fire alarm...

30 CFR 57.4330 - Surface firefighting, evacuation, and rescue procedures.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... NONMETAL MINES Fire Prevention and Control Firefighting Procedures/alarms/drills § 57.4330 Surface... coordinated in advance with available firefighting organizations. (b) Fire alarm procedures or systems shall be established to promptly warn every person who could be endangered by a fire. (c) Fire alarm...

Making the Most of MASINT and Advanced Geospatial Intelligence

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-04-10

mining contracts and new job creation that ultimately supports economic development. This 22 type of forensic level analysis can make MASINT an...and Technology, ed. John D. Bossler (London: Taylor and Francis, 2002), 305 17 Jian Guo Liu and Philippa J. Mason, Essential Image Processing and

Author Detection on a Mobile Phone

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-01

handwriting , and to mine sales data for profitable trends. Two broad categories of machine learning are supervised learn- ing and unsupervised learning...evaluation,” AI 2006: Advances in Artificial Intelligence, p. 1015–1021, 2006. [23] “Gartner says worldwide mobile phone sales grew 17 per cent in first

Testing a small UAS for mapping artisanal diamond mining sites in Africa

USGS Publications Warehouse

Malpeli, Katherine C.; Chirico, Peter G.

2015-01-01

Remote sensing technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate. At the forefront of the new technological developments are unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The advent of small, lightweight, low-cost, and user-friendly UAS is greatly expanding the potential applications of remote sensing technology and improving the set of tools available to researchers seeking to map and monitor terrain from above. In this article, we explore the applications of a small UAS for mapping informal diamond mining sites in Africa. We found that this technology provides aerial imagery of unparalleled resolution in a data-sparse, difficult to access, and remote terrain.

CSPMS supported by information technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Hudan; Wu, Heng

This paper will propose a whole new viewpoint about building a CSPMS(Coal-mine Safety Production Management System) by means of information technology. This system whose core part is a four-grade automatic triggered warning system achieves the goal that information transmission will be smooth, nondestructive and in time. At the same time, the system provides a comprehensive and collective technology platform for various Public Management Organizations and coal-mine production units to deal with safety management, advance warning, unexpected incidents, preplan implementation, and resource deployment at different levels. The database of this system will support national related industry's resource control, plan, statistics, tax and the construction of laws and regulations effectively.

LLNL Location and Detection Research

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Myers, S C; Harris, D B; Anderson, M L

2003-07-16

We present two LLNL research projects in the topical areas of location and detection. The first project assesses epicenter accuracy using a multiple-event location algorithm, and the second project employs waveform subspace Correlation to detect and identify events at Fennoscandian mines. Accurately located seismic events are the bases of location calibration. A well-characterized set of calibration events enables new Earth model development, empirical calibration, and validation of models. In a recent study, Bondar et al. (2003) develop network coverage criteria for assessing the accuracy of event locations that are determined using single-event, linearized inversion methods. These criteria are conservative andmore » are meant for application to large bulletins where emphasis is on catalog completeness and any given event location may be improved through detailed analysis or application of advanced algorithms. Relative event location techniques are touted as advancements that may improve absolute location accuracy by (1) ensuring an internally consistent dataset, (2) constraining a subset of events to known locations, and (3) taking advantage of station and event correlation structure. Here we present the preliminary phase of this work in which we use Nevada Test Site (NTS) nuclear explosions, with known locations, to test the effect of travel-time model accuracy on relative location accuracy. Like previous studies, we find that the reference velocity-model and relative-location accuracy are highly correlated. We also find that metrics based on travel-time residual of relocated events are not a reliable for assessing either velocity-model or relative-location accuracy. In the topical area of detection, we develop specialized correlation (subspace) detectors for the principal mines surrounding the ARCES station located in the European Arctic. Our objective is to provide efficient screens for explosions occurring in the mines of the Kola Peninsula (Kovdor, Zapolyarny, Olenogorsk, Khibiny) and the major iron mines of northern Sweden (Malmberget, Kiruna). In excess of 90% of the events detected by the ARCES station are mining explosions, and a significant fraction are from these northern mining groups. The primary challenge in developing waveform correlation detectors is the degree of variation in the source time histories of the shots, which can result in poor correlation among events even in close proximity. Our approach to solving this problem is to use lagged subspace correlation detectors, which offer some prospect of compensating for variation and uncertainty in source time functions.« less

Advances in natural language processing.

PubMed

Hirschberg, Julia; Manning, Christopher D

2015-07-17

Natural language processing employs computational techniques for the purpose of learning, understanding, and producing human language content. Early computational approaches to language research focused on automating the analysis of the linguistic structure of language and developing basic technologies such as machine translation, speech recognition, and speech synthesis. Today's researchers refine and make use of such tools in real-world applications, creating spoken dialogue systems and speech-to-speech translation engines, mining social media for information about health or finance, and identifying sentiment and emotion toward products and services. We describe successes and challenges in this rapidly advancing area. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

MINEs: open access databases of computationally predicted enzyme promiscuity products for untargeted metabolomics.

PubMed

Jeffryes, James G; Colastani, Ricardo L; Elbadawi-Sidhu, Mona; Kind, Tobias; Niehaus, Thomas D; Broadbelt, Linda J; Hanson, Andrew D; Fiehn, Oliver; Tyo, Keith E J; Henry, Christopher S

2015-01-01

In spite of its great promise, metabolomics has proven difficult to execute in an untargeted and generalizable manner. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) has made it possible to gather data on thousands of cellular metabolites. However, matching metabolites to their spectral features continues to be a bottleneck, meaning that much of the collected information remains uninterpreted and that new metabolites are seldom discovered in untargeted studies. These challenges require new approaches that consider compounds beyond those available in curated biochemistry databases. Here we present Metabolic In silico Network Expansions (MINEs), an extension of known metabolite databases to include molecules that have not been observed, but are likely to occur based on known metabolites and common biochemical reactions. We utilize an algorithm called the Biochemical Network Integrated Computational Explorer (BNICE) and expert-curated reaction rules based on the Enzyme Commission classification system to propose the novel chemical structures and reactions that comprise MINE databases. Starting from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) COMPOUND database, the MINE contains over 571,000 compounds, of which 93% are not present in the PubChem database. However, these MINE compounds have on average higher structural similarity to natural products than compounds from KEGG or PubChem. MINE databases were able to propose annotations for 98.6% of a set of 667 MassBank spectra, 14% more than KEGG alone and equivalent to PubChem while returning far fewer candidates per spectra than PubChem (46 vs. 1715 median candidates). Application of MINEs to LC-MS accurate mass data enabled the identity of an unknown peak to be confidently predicted. MINE databases are freely accessible for non-commercial use via user-friendly web-tools at http://minedatabase.mcs.anl.gov and developer-friendly APIs. MINEs improve metabolomics peak identification as compared to general chemical databases whose results include irrelevant synthetic compounds. Furthermore, MINEs complement and expand on previous in silico generated compound databases that focus on human metabolism. We are actively developing the database; future versions of this resource will incorporate transformation rules for spontaneous chemical reactions and more advanced filtering and prioritization of candidate structures. Graphical abstractMINE database construction and access methods. The process of constructing a MINE database from the curated source databases is depicted on the left. The methods for accessing the database are shown on the right.

Reuse and Securing of Mining Waste : Need of the hour

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mehta, Neha; Dino, Giovanna; Ajmone-Marsan, Franco; De Luca, Domenico Antonio

2016-04-01

With recent advancements in technology and rising standards of living the demand for minerals has increased drastically. Increased reliance on mining industry has led to unmanageable challenges of Mining waste generated out of Mining and Quarrying activities. According to Statistics from EuroStat Mining and Quarrying generated 734 million Tons in Europe in 2012 which accounted for 29.19 % of the total waste, becoming second most important sector in terms of waste generation after Construction Industry. Mining waste can be voluminous and/ or chemically active and can cause environmental threats like groundwater pollution due to leaching of pollutants, surface water pollution due to runoffs during rainy season, river and ocean pollution due to intentional dumping of tailings by mining companies. Most of the big mining companies have not adopted policies against dumping of tailings in rivers and oceans. Deep Sea Tailings Placement (DSTP) is creating havoc in remote and pristine environment of deep-sea beds e.g. Bismarck Sea. Furthermore, mining waste is contaminating soil in nearby areas by disturbing soil microbial activity and other physio-chemical and biological properties of soil (e.g. Barruecopardo village - Spain). Mining waste stored in heaps and dams has led to many accidents and on an average, worldwide, there is one major accident in a year involving tailings dams (e.g. Myanmar, Brazil, 2015). Pollution due to tailings is causing local residents to relocate and become 'ecological migrants'. The above issues linked to mining waste makes reuse and securing of mining waste one of the urgent challenge to deal with. The studies done previously on mining show that most of the researches linked with mining waste reuse and securing are very site specific. For instance, the type of recovery method should not only provide environmental clean-up but also economic benefits to promise sustainability of the method. Environmental risk assessment of using mining waste as agricultural soils can depend on Bio-accumulation factor, Translocation factor of heavy metals, species of plant grown and type of the natural biota of the surroundings and effect of different exposure routes. This also leads to the fact that more research is required in this area. Accordingly the same problem statement was chosen as part of a PhD research Project. The PhD research is part of REMEDIATE project (A Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action Initial Training Network for Improved decision making in contaminated land site investigation and risk assessment, Grant Agreement No. 643087). In this project the researcher will select a mining site in Italy to find possible solutions to the environmental impact of mining waste collected there. The project will focus on 1) physical and chemical characterization of waste 2)environmental risk assessment study of the mining waste 3) impact of mining waste on water bodies and soil 4) to discover possible routes of reuse and recovery of minerals from the waste. Thus project focuses on environmental sustainability of mining waste reuse and clean up. Keywords : Mining waste ; environmental risk assessment ;reuse and recovery.

MINEs: Open access databases of computationally predicted enzyme promiscuity products for untargeted metabolomics

DOE PAGES

Jeffryes, James G.; Colastani, Ricardo L.; Elbadawi-Sidhu, Mona; ...

2015-08-28

Metabolomics have proven difficult to execute in an untargeted and generalizable manner. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) has made it possible to gather data on thousands of cellular metabolites. However, matching metabolites to their spectral features continues to be a bottleneck, meaning that much of the collected information remains uninterpreted and that new metabolites are seldom discovered in untargeted studies. These challenges require new approaches that consider compounds beyond those available in curated biochemistry databases. Here we present Metabolic In silico Network Expansions (MINEs), an extension of known metabolite databases to include molecules that have not been observed, but are likelymore » to occur based on known metabolites and common biochemical reactions. We utilize an algorithm called the Biochemical Network Integrated Computational Explorer (BNICE) and expert-curated reaction rules based on the Enzyme Commission classification system to propose the novel chemical structures and reactions that comprise MINE databases. Starting from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) COMPOUND database, the MINE contains over 571,000 compounds, of which 93% are not present in the PubChem database. However, these MINE compounds have on average higher structural similarity to natural products than compounds from KEGG or PubChem. MINE databases were able to propose annotations for 98.6% of a set of 667 MassBank spectra, 14% more than KEGG alone and equivalent to PubChem while returning far fewer candidates per spectra than PubChem (46 vs. 1715 median candidates). Application of MINEs to LC–MS accurate mass data enabled the identity of an unknown peak to be confidently predicted. MINE databases are freely accessible for non-commercial use via user-friendly web-tools at http://minedatabase.mcs.anl.gov and developer-friendly APIs. MINEs improve metabolomics peak identification as compared to general chemical databases whose results include irrelevant synthetic compounds. MINEs complement and expand on previous in silico generated compound databases that focus on human metabolism. We are actively developing the database; future versions of this resource will incorporate transformation rules for spontaneous chemical reactions and more advanced filtering and prioritization of candidate structures.« less

15 CFR 971.1007 - Advance notice of civil actions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... THE ENVIRONMENTAL DATA SERVICE DEEP SEABED MINING REGULATIONS FOR COMMERCIAL RECOVERY PERMITS... Court under section 117 of the Act against the Administrator for an alleged failure to perform any act... a failure to perform the act or duty; and (iv) Any documentary or other evidence of the alleged...

Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Conference on NASA/University Advanced Space Design Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

Topics discussed include: lunar transportation system, Mars rover, lunar fiberglass production, geosynchronous space stations, regenerative system for growing plants, lunar mining devices, lunar oxygen transporation system, mobile remote manipulator system, Mars exploration, launch/landing facility for a lunar base, and multi-megawatt nuclear power system.

Oxidative Stress, Inflammatory and Immune Response after Inhalation Exposure to Biodiesel Exhaust

EPA Science Inventory

Biodiesel (BD) is an advanced fuel produced from renewable domestic sources. The broad uses of BD in different industries including mining may lead to potential health effects. We hypothesized that the toxicity of biodiesel exhaust (BDE) is dependent at least on three major mecha...

Mining Feedback in Ranking and Recommendation Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhuang, Ziming

2009-01-01

The amount of online information has grown exponentially over the past few decades, and users become more and more dependent on ranking and recommendation systems to address their information seeking needs. The advance in information technologies has enabled users to provide feedback on the utilities of the underlying ranking and recommendation…

29 CFR 2705.10 - Fees.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 9 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Fees. 2705.10 Section 2705.10 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) FEDERAL MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH REVIEW COMMISSION PRIVACY ACT IMPLEMENTATION § 2705.10..., excluding the cost of any search for review of the record, in advance of receipt of the pages. ...

Improved close-in detection for the mine hunter/killer system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bishop, Steven S.; Campana, Stephen B.; Duston, Brian M.; Lang, David A.; Wiggins, Carl M.

2001-10-01

The Close-In Detector (CID) is the vehicle-mounted multi-sensor anti-tank landmine detection technology for the Army CECOM Night Vision Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) Mine Hunter-Killer (MH/K) Program. The CID includes two down-looking sensor arrays: a 20-antenna ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and a 16-coil metal detector (MD). These arrays span 3-meters in front of a high mobility, multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV). The CID also includes a roof-mounted, forward looking infrared (FLIR) camera that images a trapezoidal area of the road ahead of the vehicle. Signals from each of the three sensors are processed separately to detect and localize objects of interest. Features of candidate objects are integrated in a processor that uses them to discriminates between anti-tank (AT) mines and clutter and produces a list of suspected mine locations which are passed to the neutralization subsystem of MH/K. This paper reviews the current design and performance of the CID based on field test results on dirt and gravel mine test lanes. Improvements in CID performance for probability of detection, false alarm rate, target positional accuracy and system rate of advance over the past year and a half that meet most of the program goals are described. Sensor performances are compared, and the effectiveness of six different sensor fusion approaches are measured and compared.

Knowledge Discovery from Massive Healthcare Claims Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chandola, Varun; Sukumar, Sreenivas R; Schryver, Jack C

The role of big data in addressing the needs of the present healthcare system in US and rest of the world has been echoed by government, private, and academic sectors. There has been a growing emphasis to explore the promise of big data analytics in tapping the potential of the massive healthcare data emanating from private and government health insurance providers. While the domain implications of such collaboration are well known, this type of data has been explored to a limited extent in the data mining community. The objective of this paper is two fold: first, we introduce the emergingmore » domain of big"healthcare claims data to the KDD community, and second, we describe the success and challenges that we encountered in analyzing this data using state of art analytics for massive data. Specically, we translate the problem of analyzing healthcare data into some of the most well-known analysis problems in the data mining community, social network analysis, text mining, and temporal analysis and higher order feature construction, and describe how advances within each of these areas can be leveraged to understand the domain of healthcare. Each case study illustrates a unique intersection of data mining and healthcare with a common objective of improving the cost-care ratio by mining for opportunities to improve healthcare operations and reducing hat seems to fall under fraud, waste,and abuse.« less

An electromagnetic noncontacting sensor for thickness measurement in a dispersive medium

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chufo, Robert L.

1994-01-01

This paper describes a general purpose imaging technology developed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) that, when fully implemented, will solve the general problem of 'seeing into the earth.' A first-generation radar coal thickness sensor, the RCTS-1, has been developed and field-tested in both underground and highwall mines. The noncontacting electromagnetic technique uses spatial modulation created by moving a simple sensor antenna in a direction along each axis to be measured while the complex reflection coefficient is measured at multiple frequencies over a two-to-one bandwidth. The antenna motion imparts spatial modulation to the data that enables signal processing to solve the problems of media, target, and antenna dispersion. Knowledge of the dielectric constant of the media is not necessary because the electrical properties of the media are determined automatically along with the distance to the target and thickness of each layer of the target. The sensor was developed as a navigation guidance sensor to accurately detect the coal/noncoal interface required for the USBM computer-assisted mining machine program. Other mining applications include the location of rock fractures, water-filled voids, and abandoned gas wells. These hazards can be detected in advance of the mining operation. This initiating technology is being expanded into a full three-dimensional (3-D) imaging system that will have applications in both the underground and surface environment.

Text Mining to Support Gene Ontology Curation and Vice Versa.

PubMed

Ruch, Patrick

2017-01-01

In this chapter, we explain how text mining can support the curation of molecular biology databases dealing with protein functions. We also show how curated data can play a disruptive role in the developments of text mining methods. We review a decade of efforts to improve the automatic assignment of Gene Ontology (GO) descriptors, the reference ontology for the characterization of genes and gene products. To illustrate the high potential of this approach, we compare the performances of an automatic text categorizer and show a large improvement of +225 % in both precision and recall on benchmarked data. We argue that automatic text categorization functions can ultimately be embedded into a Question-Answering (QA) system to answer questions related to protein functions. Because GO descriptors can be relatively long and specific, traditional QA systems cannot answer such questions. A new type of QA system, so-called Deep QA which uses machine learning methods trained with curated contents, is thus emerging. Finally, future advances of text mining instruments are directly dependent on the availability of high-quality annotated contents at every curation step. Databases workflows must start recording explicitly all the data they curate and ideally also some of the data they do not curate.

Rapid overt airborne reconnaissance (ROAR) for mines and obstacles in very shallow water, surf zone, and beach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moran, Steven E.; Austin, William L.; Murray, James T.; Roddier, Nicolas A.; Bridges, Robert; Vercillo, Richard; Stettner, Roger; Phillips, Dave; Bisbee, Al; Witherspoon, Ned H.

2003-09-01

Under the Office of Naval Research's Organic Mine Countermeasures Future Naval Capabilities (OMCM FNC) program, Lite Cycles, Inc. is developing an innovative and highly compact airborne active sensor system for mine and obstacle detection in very shallow water (VSW), through the surf-zone (SZ) and onto the beach. The system uses an innovative LCI proprietary integrated scanner, detector, and telescope (ISDT) receiver architecture. The ISD tightly couples all receiver components and LIDAR electronics to achieve the system compaction required for tactical UAVintegration while providing a large aperture. It also includes an advanced compact multifunction laser transmitter; an industry-first high-resolution, compact 3-D camera, a scanning function for wide area search, and temporally displaced multiple looks on the fly over the ocean surface for clutter reduction. Additionally, the laser will provide time-multiplexed multi-color output to perform day/night multispectral imaging for beach surveillance. New processing algorithms for mine detection in the very challenging surf-zone clutter environment are under development, which offer the potential for significant processing gains in comparison to the legacy approaches. This paper reviews the legacy system approaches, describes the mission challenges, and provides an overview of the ROAR system architecture.

Autonomous underwater vehicle adaptive path planning for target classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edwards, Joseph R.; Schmidt, Henrik

2002-11-01

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are being rapidly developed to carry sensors into the sea in ways that have previously not been possible. The full use of the vehicles, however, is still not near realization due to lack of the true vehicle autonomy that is promised in the label (AUV). AUVs today primarily attempt to follow as closely as possible a preplanned trajectory. The key to increasing the autonomy of the AUV is to provide the vehicle with a means to make decisions based on its sensor receptions. The current work examines the use of active sonar returns from mine-like objects (MLOs) as a basis for sensor-based adaptive path planning, where the path planning objective is to discriminate between real mines and rocks. Once a target is detected in the mine hunting phase, the mine classification phase is initialized with a derivative cost function to emphasize signal differences and enhance classification capability. The AUV moves adaptively to minimize the cost function. The algorithm is verified using at-sea data derived from the joint MIT/SACLANTCEN GOATS experiments and advanced acoustic simulation using SEALAB. The mission oriented operating system (MOOS) real-time simulator is then used to test the onboard implementation of the algorithm.

Information mining in remote sensing imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jiang

The volume of remotely sensed imagery continues to grow at an enormous rate due to the advances in sensor technology, and our capability for collecting and storing images has greatly outpaced our ability to analyze and retrieve information from the images. This motivates us to develop image information mining techniques, which is very much an interdisciplinary endeavor drawing upon expertise in image processing, databases, information retrieval, machine learning, and software design. This dissertation proposes and implements an extensive remote sensing image information mining (ReSIM) system prototype for mining useful information implicitly stored in remote sensing imagery. The system consists of three modules: image processing subsystem, database subsystem, and visualization and graphical user interface (GUI) subsystem. Land cover and land use (LCLU) information corresponding to spectral characteristics is identified by supervised classification based on support vector machines (SVM) with automatic model selection, while textural features that characterize spatial information are extracted using Gabor wavelet coefficients. Within LCLU categories, textural features are clustered using an optimized k-means clustering approach to acquire search efficient space. The clusters are stored in an object-oriented database (OODB) with associated images indexed in an image database (IDB). A k-nearest neighbor search is performed using a query-by-example (QBE) approach. Furthermore, an automatic parametric contour tracing algorithm and an O(n) time piecewise linear polygonal approximation (PLPA) algorithm are developed for shape information mining of interesting objects within the image. A fuzzy object-oriented database based on the fuzzy object-oriented data (FOOD) model is developed to handle the fuzziness and uncertainty. Three specific applications are presented: integrated land cover and texture pattern mining, shape information mining for change detection of lakes, and fuzzy normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) pattern mining. The study results show the effectiveness of the proposed system prototype and the potentials for other applications in remote sensing.

Using NASA Earth Observing Satellites and Statistical Model Analysis to Monitor Vegetation and Habitat Rehabilitation in Southwest Virginia's Reclaimed Mine Lands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tate, Z.; Dusenge, D.; Elliot, T. S.; Hafashimana, P.; Medley, S.; Porter, R. P.; Rajappan, R.; Rodriguez, P.; Spangler, J.; Swaminathan, R. S.; VanGundy, R. D.

2014-12-01

The majority of the population in southwest Virginia depends economically on coal mining. In 2011, coal mining generated $2,000,000 in tax revenue to Wise County alone. However, surface mining completely removes land cover and leaves the land exposed to erosion. The destruction of the forest cover directly impacts local species, as some are displaced and others perish in the mining process. Even though surface mining has a negative impact on the environment, land reclamation efforts are in place to either restore mined areas to their natural vegetated state or to transform these areas for economic purposes. This project aimed to monitor the progress of land reclamation and the effect on the return of local species. By incorporating NASA Earth observations, such as Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM), re-vegetation process in reclamation sites was estimated through a Time series analysis using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). A continuous source of cloud free images was accomplished by utilizing the Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model (STAR-FM). This model developed synthetic Landsat imagery by integrating the high-frequency temporal information from Terra/Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and high-resolution spatial information from Landsat sensors In addition, the Maximum Entropy Modeling (MaxENT), an eco-niche model was used to estimate the adaptation of animal species to the newly formed habitats. By combining factors such as land type, precipitation from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), and slope from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), the MaxENT model produced a statistical analysis on the probability of species habitat. Altogether, the project compiled the ecological information which can be used to identify suitable habitats for local species in reclaimed mined areas.

Similar simulation study on the characteristics of the electric potential response to coal mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niu, Yue; Li, Zhonghui; Kong, Biao; Wang, Enyuan; Lou, Quan; Qiu, Liming; Kong, Xiangguo; Wang, Jiali; Dong, Mingfu; Li, Baolin

2018-02-01

An electric potential (EP) can be generated during the failure process of coal and rock. In this article, a similar physical model of coal rock was built and the characteristics of the EP responding to the process of coal mining were studied. The results showed that, at the early mining stage, the structure of coal rock strata were stable in the simulation model, the support stress of overlying coal rock strata was low and the maximum subsidence was little, while the EP change was less. With the advancement of the working face, the support stress of the overlying coal rock strata in the mined-out area changed dramatically, the maximum subsidence increased constantly, the deformation and destruction were aggravated, and cracks expanded continuously. Meanwhile, the EP response was significant with fluctuation. When significant macro damage appeared in coal rock strata, the EP signal fluctuation was violent. The overlying coal rock strata were influenced by gravity and mining activity. During the mining process, the crack growth and the friction, together with slip between coal and rock particles, resulted in the response of EP. The change in EP was closely related to the damage state and stress distribution of the coal rock strata. EP monitoring has the advantages of accurate reflection and strong anti-interference in the field. Therefore, with further study, an EP monitoring method could be applied for monitoring and early warning of coal and rock dynamic disaster, and risk evaluation in the future. The strength of the EP and its fluctuation degree could serve as the key discrimination indexes.

Estimating of aquifer parameters from the single-well water-level measurements in response to advancing longwall mine by using particle swarm optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buyuk, Ersin; Karaman, Abdullah

2017-04-01

We estimated transmissivity and storage coefficient values from the single well water-level measurements positioned ahead of the mining face by using particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. The water-level response to the advancing mining face contains an semi-analytical function that is not suitable for conventional inversion shemes because the partial derivative is difficult to calculate . Morever, the logaritmic behaviour of the model create difficulty for obtaining an initial model that may lead to a stable convergence. The PSO appears to obtain a reliable solution that produce a reasonable fit between water-level data and model function response. Optimization methods have been used to find optimum conditions consisting either minimum or maximum of a given objective function with regard to some criteria. Unlike PSO, traditional non-linear optimization methods have been used for many hydrogeologic and geophysical engineering problems. These methods indicate some difficulties such as dependencies to initial model, evolution of the partial derivatives that is required while linearizing the model and trapping at local optimum. Recently, Particle swarm optimization (PSO) became the focus of modern global optimization method that is inspired from the social behaviour of birds of swarms, and appears to be a reliable and powerful algorithms for complex engineering applications. PSO that is not dependent on an initial model, and non-derivative stochastic process appears to be capable of searching all possible solutions in the model space either around local or global optimum points.

Preliminary assessment of industrial needs for an advanced ocean technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mourad, A. G.; Maher, K. M.; Balon, J. E.; Coyle, A. G.; Henkener, J. A.

1979-01-01

A quick-look review of selected ocean industries is presented for the purpose of providing NASA OSTA with an assessment of technology needs and market potential. The size and growth potential, needs and problem areas, technology presently used and its suppliers, are given for industries involved in deep ocean mining, petrochemicals ocean energy conversion. Supporting services such as ocean bottom surveying; underwater transportation, data collection, and work systems; and inspection and diving services are included. Examples of key problem areas that are amenable to advanced technology solutions are included. Major companies are listed.

CO 2 Storage in Shallow Underground and Surface Coal Mines: Challenges and Opportunities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Romanov, Vyacheslav N.; Ackman, Terry E.; Soong, Yee

2009-02-01

For coal to be a viable energy source, its excessive CO 2 emissions must be curtailed. Sequestration of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases is a possibility, but success therein is preceded by a significant number of challenges. Perhaps the most onerous is the tradeoff between using deep mines that would better trap CO 2 against using shallower options that are more economical to access. In confronting this issue, a group of U.S. Department of Energy researchers argue that recent advances in the understanding of materials afforded by nanoscale mechanistic models point in a promising direction to develop better sequestrationmore » technologies.« less

Water Recovery from Brine in the Short and Long Term: A KSC Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lunn, Griffin; Melendez, Orlando; Anthony, Steve

2014-01-01

KSC has spent many years researching Hollow Fiber Membrane Bioreactors as well as research encompassing:Alternate ammonia removal/Advanced oxidation. Brine purification technologies KSC-ISRU has built an electrolysis cell for the removal of acids in ISRU mining brines. Our goal is to combine all such technologies.

Fire Detector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1978-01-01

An early warning fire detection sensor developed for NASA's Space Shuttle Orbiter is being evaluated as a possible hazard prevention system for mining operations. The incipient Fire Detector represents an advancement over commercially available smoke detectors in that it senses and signals the presence of a fire condition before the appearance of flame and smoke, offering an extra margin of safety.

Clementine. Mining new uses for SDI technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rustan, Pedro L.

1994-01-01

Using ballistic missile defense technologies for NASA science missions can dramatically reduce program costs and development time. Described is the Clementine spacecraft scheduled for launch to flight-qualify advanced lightweight technologies. The 500-lb spacecraft, which uses lightweight components and minimal redundancy, was built by the Naval Research Laboratory in less than two years.

30 CFR 75.222 - Roof control plan-approval criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

..., roof bolts should be installed on at least 5-foot centers where the work is performed. (2) Where the... opening before any other work or travel in the intersection. (f) ATRS systems in working sections where... panel in advance of the frontal abutment stresses of the panel being mined. (2) When a ground failure...

30 CFR 75.222 - Roof control plan-approval criteria.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

..., roof bolts should be installed on at least 5-foot centers where the work is performed. (2) Where the... opening before any other work or travel in the intersection. (f) ATRS systems in working sections where... panel in advance of the frontal abutment stresses of the panel being mined. (2) When a ground failure...

Improving the Scalability of an Exact Approach for Frequent Item Set Hiding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaMacchia, Carolyn

2013-01-01

Technological advances have led to the generation of large databases of organizational data recognized as an information-rich, strategic asset for internal analysis and sharing with trading partners. Data mining techniques can discover patterns in large databases including relationships considered strategically relevant to the owner of the data.…

Advanced Pattern Recognition Techniques (Techniques avancees de reconnaissance de forme)

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-09-01

alarmes dans la d6tection des mines terrestres et des munitions explosives non explos6es. Les m~thodes classiques de reconnaissance de forme...the XVIII. Congress of the International Society for [19] DIN EN 60825-1(IEC 825-1) VDE 0837, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Sicherheit von Laser

43 CFR 3485.2 - Royalties.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

.... (d) If a Federal coal lease that provides for a cents-per-ton Federal royalty is developed by in situ..., Royalties and Records § 3485.2 Royalties. (a) Provisions for the payment of advance royalty in lieu of..., except those created in order to finance a mine, shall not be created by a Federal lease transfer or...

43 CFR 3485.2 - Royalties.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

.... (d) If a Federal coal lease that provides for a cents-per-ton Federal royalty is developed by in situ..., Royalties and Records § 3485.2 Royalties. (a) Provisions for the payment of advance royalty in lieu of..., except those created in order to finance a mine, shall not be created by a Federal lease transfer or...

26 CFR 1.621-1 - Payments to encourage exploration, development, and mining for defense purposes.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) INCOME TAX (CONTINUED) INCOME TAXES (CONTINUED) Exclusions from Gross...) General rule. (1) Under section 621, a taxpayer shall exclude from gross income amounts which are paid to..., gift, bounty, bonus, premium, incentive, subsidy, loan, or advance, (iii) For the encouragement of...

Common hyperspectral image database design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, Lixun; Liao, Ningfang; Chai, Ali

2009-11-01

This paper is to introduce Common hyperspectral image database with a demand-oriented Database design method (CHIDB), which comprehensively set ground-based spectra, standardized hyperspectral cube, spectral analysis together to meet some applications. The paper presents an integrated approach to retrieving spectral and spatial patterns from remotely sensed imagery using state-of-the-art data mining and advanced database technologies, some data mining ideas and functions were associated into CHIDB to make it more suitable to serve in agriculture, geological and environmental areas. A broad range of data from multiple regions of the electromagnetic spectrum is supported, including ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, thermal infrared, and fluorescence. CHIDB is based on dotnet framework and designed by MVC architecture including five main functional modules: Data importer/exporter, Image/spectrum Viewer, Data Processor, Parameter Extractor, and On-line Analyzer. The original data were all stored in SQL server2008 for efficient search, query and update, and some advance Spectral image data Processing technology are used such as Parallel processing in C#; Finally an application case is presented in agricultural disease detecting area.

Advances in genetic circuit design: novel biochemistries, deep part mining, and precision gene expression.

PubMed

Nielsen, Alec A K; Segall-Shapiro, Thomas H; Voigt, Christopher A

2013-12-01

Cells use regulatory networks to perform computational operations to respond to their environment. Reliably manipulating such networks would be valuable for many applications in biotechnology; for example, in having genes turn on only under a defined set of conditions or implementing dynamic or temporal control of expression. Still, building such synthetic regulatory circuits remains one of the most difficult challenges in genetic engineering and as a result they have not found widespread application. Here, we review recent advances that address the key challenges in the forward design of genetic circuits. First, we look at new design concepts, including the construction of layered digital and analog circuits, and new approaches to control circuit response functions. Second, we review recent work to apply part mining and computational design to expand the number of regulators that can be used together within one cell. Finally, we describe new approaches to obtain precise gene expression and to reduce context dependence that will accelerate circuit design by more reliably balancing regulators while reducing toxicity. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Warmth and friendship abound in Siberia

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Whitworth, K.

1978-08-01

Despite the harsh climate, 20,000,000 people occupy 6,500,000 square kilometers of land, which contains approximately 60% of all the known fuel resources of the Soviet Union. More than 12% of the world's coal reserves are concentrated in Central Siberia between the Kuznetsk basin and the Yenisei, in an area no more than two percent of the land surface. It is for this reason and knowing that many technological advances in mining had been made in this area that, in discussion with the Soviet Coal Ministry, it was agreed that a WORLD COAL Editor, in pursuant to the agreement made betweenmore » the Soviet coal magazine UGOL and WORLD COAL should visit surface openpit, deep mines and coal preparation plants and prepare this article in the issue specially devoted to Russian coal mining achievements. The trip was undertaken in the short summer months around July when the climate is unbelievably like that of the Mediterranean. Four main areas were visited, Novokusnetsk, Mezdurechensk, Irkutsk and Cheremhovo.« less

Unsolved problems in observational astronomy. II. Focus on rapid response - mining the sky with ``thinking" telescopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vestrand, W. T.; Theiler, J.; Woznia, P. R.

2004-10-01

The existence of rapidly slewing robotic telescopes and fast alert distribution via the Internet is revolutionizing our capability to study the physics of fast astrophysical transients. But the salient challenge that optical time domain surveys must conquer is mining the torrent of data to recognize important transients in a scene full of normal variations. Humans simply do not have the attention span, memory, or reaction time required to recognize fast transients and rapidly respond. Autonomous robotic instrumentation with the ability to extract pertinent information from the data stream in real time will therefore be essential for recognizing transients and commanding rapid follow-up observations while the ephemeral behavior is still present. Here we discuss how the development and integration of three technologies: (1) robotic telescope networks; (2) machine learning; and (3) advanced database technology, can enable the construction of smart robotic telescopes, which we loosely call ``thinking'' telescopes, capable of mining the sky in real time.

Collaborative mining and interpretation of large-scale data for biomedical research insights.

PubMed

Tsiliki, Georgia; Karacapilidis, Nikos; Christodoulou, Spyros; Tzagarakis, Manolis

2014-01-01

Biomedical research becomes increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature. Researchers need to efficiently and effectively collaborate and make decisions by meaningfully assembling, mining and analyzing available large-scale volumes of complex multi-faceted data residing in different sources. In line with related research directives revealing that, in spite of the recent advances in data mining and computational analysis, humans can easily detect patterns which computer algorithms may have difficulty in finding, this paper reports on the practical use of an innovative web-based collaboration support platform in a biomedical research context. Arguing that dealing with data-intensive and cognitively complex settings is not a technical problem alone, the proposed platform adopts a hybrid approach that builds on the synergy between machine and human intelligence to facilitate the underlying sense-making and decision making processes. User experience shows that the platform enables more informed and quicker decisions, by displaying the aggregated information according to their needs, while also exploiting the associated human intelligence.

Collaborative Mining and Interpretation of Large-Scale Data for Biomedical Research Insights

PubMed Central

Tsiliki, Georgia; Karacapilidis, Nikos; Christodoulou, Spyros; Tzagarakis, Manolis

2014-01-01

Biomedical research becomes increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature. Researchers need to efficiently and effectively collaborate and make decisions by meaningfully assembling, mining and analyzing available large-scale volumes of complex multi-faceted data residing in different sources. In line with related research directives revealing that, in spite of the recent advances in data mining and computational analysis, humans can easily detect patterns which computer algorithms may have difficulty in finding, this paper reports on the practical use of an innovative web-based collaboration support platform in a biomedical research context. Arguing that dealing with data-intensive and cognitively complex settings is not a technical problem alone, the proposed platform adopts a hybrid approach that builds on the synergy between machine and human intelligence to facilitate the underlying sense-making and decision making processes. User experience shows that the platform enables more informed and quicker decisions, by displaying the aggregated information according to their needs, while also exploiting the associated human intelligence. PMID:25268270

Advanced Hybrid Propulsion and Energy Management System for High Efficiency, Off Highway, 240 Ton Class, Diesel Electric Haul Trucks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Richter, Tim; Slezak, Lee; Johnson, Chris

2008-12-31

The objective of this project is to reduce the fuel consumption of off-highway vehicles, specifically large tonnage mine haul trucks. A hybrid energy storage and management system will be added to a conventional diesel-electric truck that will allow capture of braking energy normally dissipated in grid resistors as heat. The captured energy will be used during acceleration and motoring, reducing the diesel engine load, thus conserving fuel. The project will work towards a system validation of the hybrid system by first selecting an energy storage subsystem and energy management subsystem. Laboratory testing at a subscale level will evaluate these selectionsmore » and then a full-scale laboratory test will be performed. After the subsystems have been proven at the full-scale lab, equipment will be mounted on a mine haul truck and integrated with the vehicle systems. The integrated hybrid components will be exercised to show functionality, capability, and fuel economy impacts in a mine setting.« less

Evolution of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) into a Data Mining Discovery Engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mazzarella, Joseph M.; NED Team

2017-06-01

We review recent advances and ongoing work in evolving the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) beyond an object reference database into a data mining discovery engine. Updates to the infrastructure and data integration techniques are enabling more than a 10-fold expansion; NED will soon contain over a billion objects with their fundamental attributes fused across the spectrum via cross-identifications among the largest sky surveys (e.g., GALEX, SDSS, 2MASS, AllWISE, EMU), and over 100,000 smaller but scientifically important catalogs and journal articles. The recent discovery of super-luminous spiral galaxies exemplifies the opportunities for data mining and science discovery directly from NED's rich data synthesis. Enhancements to the user interface, including new APIs, VO protocols, and queries involving derived physical quantities, are opening new pathways for panchromatic studies of large galaxy samples. Examples are shown of graphics characterizing the content of NED, as well as initial steps in exploring the database via interactive statistical visualizations.

Informing child welfare policy and practice: using knowledge discovery and data mining technology via a dynamic Web site.

PubMed

Duncan, Dean F; Kum, Hye-Chung; Weigensberg, Elizabeth Caplick; Flair, Kimberly A; Stewart, C Joy

2008-11-01

Proper management and implementation of an effective child welfare agency requires the constant use of information about the experiences and outcomes of children involved in the system, emphasizing the need for comprehensive, timely, and accurate data. In the past 20 years, there have been many advances in technology that can maximize the potential of administrative data to promote better evaluation and management in the field of child welfare. Specifically, this article discusses the use of knowledge discovery and data mining (KDD), which makes it possible to create longitudinal data files from administrative data sources, extract valuable knowledge, and make the information available via a user-friendly public Web site. This article demonstrates a successful project in North Carolina where knowledge discovery and data mining technology was used to develop a comprehensive set of child welfare outcomes available through a public Web site to facilitate information sharing of child welfare data to improve policy and practice.

Data Mining as a Service (DMaaS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tejedor, E.; Piparo, D.; Mascetti, L.; Moscicki, J.; Lamanna, M.; Mato, P.

2016-10-01

Data Mining as a Service (DMaaS) is a software and computing infrastructure that allows interactive mining of scientific data in the cloud. It allows users to run advanced data analyses by leveraging the widely adopted Jupyter notebook interface. Furthermore, the system makes it easier to share results and scientific code, access scientific software, produce tutorials and demonstrations as well as preserve the analyses of scientists. This paper describes how a first pilot of the DMaaS service is being deployed at CERN, starting from the notebook interface that has been fully integrated with the ROOT analysis framework, in order to provide all the tools for scientists to run their analyses. Additionally, we characterise the service backend, which combines a set of IT services such as user authentication, virtual computing infrastructure, mass storage, file synchronisation, development portals or batch systems. The added value acquired by the combination of the aforementioned categories of services is discussed, focusing on the opportunities offered by the CERNBox synchronisation service and its massive storage backend, EOS.

A comparison of licensed and un-licensed artisanal and small-scale gold miners (ASGM) in terms of socio-demographics, work profiles, and injury rates.

PubMed

Calys-Tagoe, Benedict N L; Clarke, Edith; Robins, Thomas; Basu, Niladri

2017-11-06

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) represents one of the most hazardous work environments. While formalization of this sector has been suggested (e.g., Minamata Convention) as a means to improve working conditions, we are unaware of empirical evidence that supports this notion. This study aimed to compare sociodemographic profiles, work profiles, and injury rates among miners working in licensed versus un-licensed ASGM sites. In the Tarkwa mining region of Ghana, 404 small-scale miners were recruited in 2014 and interviewed regarding their occupational injury experiences over the preceding 10 years. Workers were drawn from 9 mining sites, of which 5 were licensed and 4 were not licensed. Sociodemographic characteristics of miners from the two groups were relatively similar. Those currently working in an un-licensed mine have spent more time in the ASGM sector than those currently working in a licensed mine (94 vs. 70 months). Miners working in an un-licensed site tended to experience more injury episodes (e.g., 26% vs. 8% had 3 or more injury events) and not use personal protective equipment during the time of an injury (92% indicated to not using vs. 73%) when compared to miners working in a licensed site. A total of 121 injury episodes were recorded for 2245 person years of ASGM work. The injury rate for those working in un-licensed mines was 5.9 per 100 person years (59 injuries in 995 person years) versus 5.0 (62 injuries in 1250 person-years) in the licensed mines. When focusing on the male miners, there was a significant difference in injury rates between those working in a licensed mine (4.2 per 100 person years) versus an un-licensed mine (6.1 per 100 person years). These findings advance our understanding of injuries amongst ASGM workers, and help identify important differences in socio-demographics, work profiles, and injury rates between miners working in a licensed versus and un-licensed site. The findings suggest that certain working conditions in a licensed site may be safer.

Data mining of routine laboratory tests can predict liver disease progression in Egyptian diabetic patients with hepatitis C virus (G4) infection: a cohort study of 71 806 patients.

PubMed

Saad, Yasmin; Awad, Abobakr; Alakel, Wafaa; Doss, Wahid; Awad, Tahany; Mabrouk, Mahasen

2018-02-01

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and diabetes mellitus (DM) are prevalent diseases worldwide, associated with significant morbidity, mortality, and mutual association. The aims of this study were as follows: (i) find the prevalence of DM among 71 806 Egyptian patients with chronic HCV infection and its effect on liver disease progression and (ii) using data mining of routine tests to predict hepatic fibrosis in diabetic patients with HCV infection. A retrospective multicentered study included laboratory and histopathological data of 71 806 patients with HCV infection collected by Egyptian National Committee for control of viral hepatitis. Using data mining analysis, we constructed decision tree algorithm to assess predictors of fibrosis progression in diabetic patients with HCV. Overall, 12 018 (16.8%) patients were diagnosed as having diabetes [6428: fasting blood glucose ≥126 mg/dl (9%) and 5590: fasting blood glucose ≥110-126 mg/dl (7.8%)]. DM was significantly associated with advanced age, high BMI and α-fetoprotein (AFP), and low platelets and serum albumin (P≤0.001). Advanced liver fibrosis (F3-F4) was significantly correlated with DM (P≤0.001) irrespective of age. Of 16 attributes, decision tree model for fibrosis showed AFP was most decisive with cutoff of 5.25 ng/ml as starting point of fibrosis. AFP level greater than cutoff in patients was the first important splitting attribute; age and platelet count were second important splitting attributes. (i) Chronic HCV is significantly associated with DM (16.8%). (ii) Advanced age, high BMI and AFP, low platelets count and albumin show significant association with DM in HCV. (iii) AFP cutoff of 5.25 is a starting point of fibrosis development and integrated into mathematical model to predict development of liver fibrosis in diabetics with HCV (G4) infection.

Machine learning approaches to analysing textual injury surveillance data: a systematic review.

PubMed

Vallmuur, Kirsten

2015-06-01

To synthesise recent research on the use of machine learning approaches to mining textual injury surveillance data. Systematic review. The electronic databases which were searched included PubMed, Cinahl, Medline, Google Scholar, and Proquest. The bibliography of all relevant articles was examined and associated articles were identified using a snowballing technique. For inclusion, articles were required to meet the following criteria: (a) used a health-related database, (b) focused on injury-related cases, AND used machine learning approaches to analyse textual data. The papers identified through the search were screened resulting in 16 papers selected for review. Articles were reviewed to describe the databases and methodology used, the strength and limitations of different techniques, and quality assurance approaches used. Due to heterogeneity between studies meta-analysis was not performed. Occupational injuries were the focus of half of the machine learning studies and the most common methods described were Bayesian probability or Bayesian network based methods to either predict injury categories or extract common injury scenarios. Models were evaluated through either comparison with gold standard data or content expert evaluation or statistical measures of quality. Machine learning was found to provide high precision and accuracy when predicting a small number of categories, was valuable for visualisation of injury patterns and prediction of future outcomes. However, difficulties related to generalizability, source data quality, complexity of models and integration of content and technical knowledge were discussed. The use of narrative text for injury surveillance has grown in popularity, complexity and quality over recent years. With advances in data mining techniques, increased capacity for analysis of large databases, and involvement of computer scientists in the injury prevention field, along with more comprehensive use and description of quality assurance methods in text mining approaches, it is likely that we will see a continued growth and advancement in knowledge of text mining in the injury field. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Advanced power assessment for Czech lignite. Task 3.6, Volume 1

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sondreal, E.A.; Mann, M.D.; Weber, G.W.

1995-12-01

The US has invested heavily in research, development, and demonstration of efficient and environmentally acceptable technologies for the use of coal. The US has the opportunity to use its leadership position to market a range of advanced coal-based technologies internationally. For example, coal mining output in the Czech Republic has been decreasing. This decrease in demand can be attributed mainly to the changing structure of the Czech economy and to environmental constraints. The continued production of energy from indigenous brown coals is a major concern for the Czech Republic. The strong desire to continue to use this resource is amore » challenge. The Energy and Environmental Research Center undertook two major efforts recently. One effort involved an assessment of opportunities for commercialization of US coal technologies in the Czech Republic. This report is the result of that effort. The technology assessment focused on the utilization of Czech brown coals. These coals are high in ash and sulfur, and the information presented in this report focuses on the utilization of these brown coals in an economically and environmentally friendly manner. Sections 3--5 present options for utilizing the as-mined coal, while Sections 6 and 7 present options for upgrading and generating alternative uses for the lignite. Contents include Czech Republic national energy perspectives; powering; emissions control; advanced power generation systems; assessment of lignite-upgrading technologies; and alternative markets for lignite.« less

CoalVal-A coal resource valuation program

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rohrbacher, Timothy J.; McIntosh, Gary E.

2010-01-01

CoalVal is a menu-driven Windows program that produces cost-of-mining analyses of mine-modeled coal resources. Geological modeling of the coal beds and some degree of mine planning, from basic prefeasibility to advanced, must already have been performed before this program can be used. United States Geological Survey mine planning is done from a very basic, prefeasibility standpoint, but the accuracy of CoalVal's output is a reflection of the accuracy of the data entered, both for mine costs and mine planning. The mining cost analysis is done by using mine cost models designed for the commonly employed, surface and underground mining methods utilized in the United States. CoalVal requires a Microsoft Windows? 98 or Windows? XP operating system and a minimum of 1 gigabyte of random access memory to perform operations. It will not operate on Microsoft Vista?, Windows? 7, or Macintosh? operating systems. The program will summarize the evaluation of an unlimited number of coal seams, haulage zones, tax entities, or other area delineations for a given coal property, coalfield, or basin. When the reader opens the CoalVal publication from the USGS website, options are provided to download the CoalVal publication manual and the CoalVal Program. The CoalVal report is divided into five specific areas relevant to the development and use of the CoalVal program: 1. Introduction to CoalVal Assumptions and Concepts. 2. Mine Model Assumption Details (appendix A). 3. CoalVal Project Tutorial (appendix B). 4. Program Description (appendix C). 5. Mine Model and Discounted Cash Flow Formulas (appendix D). The tutorial explains how to enter coal resource and quality data by mining method; program default values for production, operating, and cost variables; and ones own operating and cost variables into the program. Generated summary reports list the volume of resource in short tons available for mining, recoverable short tons by mining method; the seam or property being mined; operating cost per ton; and discounted cash flow cost per ton to mine and process the resources. Costs are calculated as loaded in a unit train, free-on-board the tipple, at a rate of return prescribed by the evaluator. The recoverable resources (in short tons) may be grouped by incremental cost over any range chosen by the user. For example, in the Gillette coalfield evaluation, the discounted cash flow mining cost (at an 8 percent rate of return) and its associated tonnage may be grouped by any applicable increment (for example, $0.10 per ton, $0.20 per ton, and so on) and using any dollar per ton range that is desired (for example, from $4.00 per ton to $15.00 per ton). This grouping ability allows the user to separate the coal reserves from the nonreserve resources and to construct cost curves to determine the effects of coal market fluctuations on the availability of coal for fuel whether for the generation of electricity or for coal-to-liquids processes. Coking coals are not addressed in this report.

Materiel requirements for airborne minefield detection system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertsche, Karl A.; Huegle, Helmut

1997-07-01

Within the concept study, Material Requirements for an airborne minefield detection systems (AMiDS) the following topics were investigated: (i) concept concerning airborne minefield detection technique sand equipment, (ii) verification analysis of the AMiDS requirements using simulation models and (iii) application concept of AMiDS with regard o tactics and military operations. In a first approach the problems concerning unmanned airborne minefield detection techniques within a well-defined area were considered. The complexity of unmanned airborne minefield detection is a result of the following parameters: mine types, mine deployment methods, tactical requirements, topography, weather conditions, and the size of the area to be searched. In order to perform the analysis, a simulation model was developed to analyze the usability of the proposed remote controlled air carriers. The basic flight patterns for the proposed air carriers, as well as the preparation efforts of military operations and benefits of such a system during combat support missions were investigated. The results of the conceptual study showed that a proposed remote controlled helicopter drone could meet the stated German MOD scanning requirements of mine barriers. Fixed wing air carriers were at a definite disadvantage because of their inherently large turning loops. By implementing a mine detection system like AMiDS minefields can be reconnoitered before an attack. It is therefore possible either to plan, how the minefields can be circumvented or where precisely breaching lanes through the mine barriers are to be cleared for the advancing force.

Health condition assessment for vegetation exposed to heavy metal pollution through airborne hyperspectral data.

PubMed

Banerjee, Bikram Pratap; Raval, Simit; Zhai, Hao; Cullen, Patrick Joseph

2017-11-03

Recent advancements in hyperspectral remote sensing technology now provide improved diagnostic capabilities to assess vegetation health conditions. This paper uses a set of 13 vegetation health indices related to chlorophyll, xanthophyll, blue/green/red ratio and structure from airborne hyperspectral reflectance data collected around a derelict mining area in Yerranderie, New South Wales, Australia. The studied area has ten historic mine shafts with a legacy of heavy metals and acidic contamination in a pristine ecosystem now recognised as Great Blue Mountain World Heritage Area. The forest is predominantly comprised of different species of Eucalyptus trees. In addition to the airborne survey, ground-based spectra of the tree leaves were collected along the two accessible heavy metal contaminated pathways. The stream networks in the area were classified and the geospatial patterns of vegetation health were analysed along the Tonalli River, a major water tributary flowing through the National Park. Despite the inflow of contaminated water from the near-mine streams, the measured vegetation health indices along Tonalli River were found to remain unchanged. The responses of the vegetation health indices between the near-mine and away-mine streams were found similar. Based on the along-stream and inter-stream analysis of the spectral indices of vegetation health, no significant impact of the heavy metal pollution could be noticed. The results indicate the possibility of the vegetation having developed immunity towards the high levels of heavy metal pollution over a century of exposure.

Evaluation and selection of decision-making methods to assess landfill mining projects.

PubMed

Hermann, Robert; Baumgartner, Rupert J; Vorbach, Stefan; Ragossnig, Arne; Pomberger, Roland

2015-09-01

For the first time in Austria, fundamental technological and economic studies on recovering secondary raw materials from large landfills have been carried out, based on the 'LAMIS - Landfill Mining Austria' pilot project. A main focus of the research - and the subject of this article - was to develop an assessment or decision-making procedure that allows landfill owners to thoroughly examine the feasibility of a landfill mining project in advance. Currently there are no standard procedures that would sufficiently cover all the multiple-criteria requirements. The basic structure of the multiple attribute decision making process was used to narrow down on selection, conceptual design and assessment of suitable procedures. Along with a breakdown into preliminary and main assessment, the entire foundation required was created, such as definitions of requirements to an assessment method, selection and accurate description of the various assessment criteria and classification of the target system for the present 'landfill mining' vs. 'retaining the landfill in after-care' decision-making problem. Based on these studies, cost-utility analysis and the analytical-hierarchy process were selected from the range of multiple attribute decision-making procedures and examined in detail. Overall, both methods have their pros and cons with regard to their use for assessing landfill mining projects. Merging these methods or connecting them with single-criteria decision-making methods (like the net present value method) may turn out to be reasonable and constitute an appropriate assessment method. © The Author(s) 2015.

How rich is Australia's minerals endowment and is it adequate to sustain a major role in meeting international demand?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lambert, I. B.

2012-04-01

Dr Ian Lambert, Geoscience Australia and Secretary General 34th International Geological Congress Australia has comparative advantages in production of mineral commodities compared to most other countries. These stem from its rich and diverse mineral endowment; availability of regional scale (pre-competitive) geoscience information to lower the risks of exploration; advances in exploration, mining and processing technologies; skilled work force; generally benign physical conditions; and low population density. Building on these strengths, Australia is a major producer and exporter of a wide range of mineral and energy commodities to global markets. Given that demand for most major commodities is likely to continue, and that there will be growing markets for some other commodities, Australia needs to have a strategic view of what is likely to be available for mining. Further, Australia (and the world) needs to be attuned to issues that need to be faced in meeting international demand for commodities in the long term. This presentation outlines how Australia's national minerals inventory is compiled. It discusses trends for Australia's identified mineral resources for major commodities, and how these compare with other major mining nations. It then considers some significant issues in relation to sustaining a strong mining sector - in the medium to long term this requires a strategic approach to achieve goals such as more effective/lower risk exploration particularly in greenfields regions; well-Informed decisions on mining proposals; ongoing significant improvements in efficiencies of energy, water and land use.

Long Term Monitoring of Ground Motions in Upper Silesia Coal Basin (USCB) Using Satellite Radar Interferometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graniczny, Marek; Przylucka, Maria; Kowalski, Zbigniew

2016-08-01

Subsidence hazard and risk within the USCB are usually connected with the deep coal mining. In such cases, the surface becomes pitted with numerous collapse cavities or basins which depth may even reach tens of meters. The subsidence is particularly dangerous because of causing severe damage to gas and water pipelines, electric cables, and to sewage disposal systems. The PGI has performed various analysis of InSAR data in this area, including all three SAR bands (X, C and L) processed by DInSAR, PSInSAR and SqueeSAR techniques. These analyses of both conventional and advanced DInSAR approaches have proven to be effective to detect the extent and the magnitude of mining subsidence impact on urban areas. In this study an analysis of two series of subsequent differential interferograms obtained in the DInSAR technique are presented. SAR scenes are covering two periods and were acquired by two different satellites: ALOS-P ALSAR data from 22/02/2007- 27/05/2008 and TerraSAR-X data from 05/07/2011-21/06/2012. The analysis included determination of the direction and development of subsidence movement in relation to the mining front and statistic comparison between range and value of maximum subsidence detected for each mining area. Detailed studies were performed for Bobrek-Centrum mining area. They included comparison of mining fronts and location of the extracted coal seams with the observed subsidence on ALOS-P ALSAR InSAR interferograms. The data can help in estimation not only the range of the subsidence events, but also its value, direction of changes and character of the motion.

A Realistic Data Warehouse Project: An Integration of Microsoft Access[R] and Microsoft Excel[R] Advanced Features and Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Michael A.

2009-01-01

Business intelligence derived from data warehousing and data mining has become one of the most strategic management tools today, providing organizations with long-term competitive advantages. Business school curriculums and popular database textbooks cover data warehousing, but the examples and problem sets typically are small and unrealistic. The…

Internet Power Searching: The Advanced Manual. 2nd Edition. Neal-Schuman NetGuide Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bradley, Phil

This handbook provides information on how Internet search engines and related software and utilities work and how to use them in order to improve search techniques. The book begins with an introduction to the Internet. Part 1 contains the following chapters that cover mining the Internet for information: "An Introduction to Search…

EEG Decoding of Semantic Category Reveals Distributed Representations for Single Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Brian; Poesio, Massimo; Bovolo, Francesca; Bruzzone, Lorenzo; Dalponte, Michele; Lakany, Heba

2011-01-01

Achieving a clearer picture of categorial distinctions in the brain is essential for our understanding of the conceptual lexicon, but much more fine-grained investigations are required in order for this evidence to contribute to lexical research. Here we present a collection of advanced data-mining techniques that allows the category of individual…

Advanced Natural Language Processing and Temporal Mining for Clinical Discovery

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mehrabi, Saeed

2016-01-01

There has been vast and growing amount of healthcare data especially with the rapid adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) as a result of the HITECH act of 2009. It is estimated that around 80% of the clinical information resides in the unstructured narrative of an EHR. Recently, natural language processing (NLP) techniques have offered…

Heat Mining or Replenishable Geothermal Energy? A Project for Advanced-Level Physics Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dugdale, Pam

2014-01-01

There is growing interest in the use of low enthalpy geothermal (LEG) energy schemes, whereby heated water is extracted from sandstone aquifers for civic heating projects. While prevalent in countries with volcanic activity, a recently proposed scheme for Manchester offered the perfect opportunity to engage students in the viability of this form…

Synthesis of engineering designs of drilling facilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Porozhsky, K.

2018-03-01

The article sets forth key principles of engineering of drilling equipment based on successive analysis of the goals of the production method, technologies of its implementation and conditions of mineral mining using a new approach to systematization of drilling methods. Potential advancement in the technologies and equipment of drilling is illustrated in terms of oil-well drilling.

78 FR 27421 - Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Receipt of Application for Incidental Take Permit...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-10

... gopher tortoise. In advance of the progression of the mining operations into future phases, quantitative surveys will be conducted for the skinks and gopher tortoises to determine the occupancy and extent of occupancy within these suitable areas. The completion of these surveys will be subject to the guidelines at...

Big data and the industrialization of neuroscience: A safe roadmap for understanding the brain?

PubMed

Frégnac, Yves

2017-10-27

New technologies in neuroscience generate reams of data at an exponentially increasing rate, spurring the design of very-large-scale data-mining initiatives. Several supranational ventures are contemplating the possibility of achieving, within the next decade(s), full simulation of the human brain. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Mining Data from Interactions with a Motivational-Aware Tutoring System Using Data Visualization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rebolledo-Mendez, Genaro; Du Boulay, Benedict; Luckin, Rosemary; Benitez-Guerrero, Edgard Ivan

2013-01-01

Tutoring systems are a common tool for delivering educational content and recent advances in this field include the detection of and reaction to learners' motivation. A data set derived from interactions in a tutoring system and its motivationally-aware variant provided opportunities to discover patterns of behavior in connection with motivational…

30 CFR 75.1507 - Emergency Response Plan; refuge alternatives.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... affirmative statement that the locations are— (i) Not within direct line of sight of the working face; and (ii... direct line of sight of the working face. (12) The maximum mine air temperature at each of the locations... 48 hours, the ERP shall detail advanced arrangements that have been made to assure that persons who...

Bernie's Odyssey: Denver Nuggets' General Manager Bernie Bickerstaff's Basketball Roots in Harlan County, Ky.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Glenn

1992-01-01

Bernie Bickerstaff discusses how growing up as an African-American athlete in rural Kentucky prepared him to become the general manager of the Denver Nuggets. Triumphing over the area's racial segregation, poverty, and mining perils gave him a sense of strength that enabled him to overcome barriers in advancing his career. (LP)

Data Mining and Domain Knowledge: An Exploration of Methods to Advance Medical Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Engle, Kelley M.

2013-01-01

Researchers in the medical domain consider the double-blind placebo controlled clinical trial the gold standard. The data for these clinical trials are collected for a specifically defined hypothesis and there is very little in the realm of secondary data analyses conducted. The underlying purpose of this work is to demonstrate the value and…

Advances and considerations in technologies for growing, imaging, and analyzing 3-D root system architecture

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The ability of a plant to mine the soil for nutrients and water is determined by how, where, and when roots are arranged in the soil matrix. The capacity of plant to maintain or improve its yield under limiting conditions, such as nutrient deficiency or drought, is affected by root system architectu...

Using Data Mining to Identify Actionable Information: Breaking New Ground in Data-Driven Decision Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Streifer, Philip A.; Schumann, Jeffrey A.

2005-01-01

The implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) presents important challenges for schools across the nation to identify problems that lead to poor performance. Yet schools must intervene with instructional programs that can make a difference and evaluate the effectiveness of such programs. New advances in artificial intelligence (AI) data-mining…

Visual Systems for Interactive Exploration and Mining of Large-Scale Neuroimaging Data Archives

PubMed Central

Bowman, Ian; Joshi, Shantanu H.; Van Horn, John D.

2012-01-01

While technological advancements in neuroimaging scanner engineering have improved the efficiency of data acquisition, electronic data capture methods will likewise significantly expedite the populating of large-scale neuroimaging databases. As they do and these archives grow in size, a particular challenge lies in examining and interacting with the information that these resources contain through the development of compelling, user-driven approaches for data exploration and mining. In this article, we introduce the informatics visualization for neuroimaging (INVIZIAN) framework for the graphical rendering of, and dynamic interaction with the contents of large-scale neuroimaging data sets. We describe the rationale behind INVIZIAN, detail its development, and demonstrate its usage in examining a collection of over 900 T1-anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image volumes from across a diverse set of clinical neuroimaging studies drawn from a leading neuroimaging database. Using a collection of cortical surface metrics and means for examining brain similarity, INVIZIAN graphically displays brain surfaces as points in a coordinate space and enables classification of clusters of neuroanatomically similar MRI images and data mining. As an initial step toward addressing the need for such user-friendly tools, INVIZIAN provides a highly unique means to interact with large quantities of electronic brain imaging archives in ways suitable for hypothesis generation and data mining. PMID:22536181

Advances in the hydrogeochemistry and microbiology of acid mine waters

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nordstrom, D. Kirk

2000-01-01

The last decade has witnessed a plethora of research related to the hydrogeochemistry and microbiology of acid mine waters and associated tailings and waste-rock waters. Numerous books, reviews, technical papers, and proceedings have been published that examine the complex bio-geochemical process of sulfide mineral oxidation, develop and apply geochemical models to site characterization, and characterize the microbial ecology of these environments. This review summarizes many of these recent works, and provides references for those investigating this field. Comparisons of measured versus calculated Eh and measured versus calculated pH for water samples from several field sites demonstrate the reliability of some current geochemical models for aqueous speciation and mass balances. Geochemical models are not, however, used to predict accurately time-dependent processes but to improve our understanding of these systems and to constrain possible processes that contribute to actual or potential water quality issues. Microbiological studies are demonstrating that there is much we have yet to learn about the types of different microorganisms and their function and ecology in mine-waste environments. A broad diversity of green algae, bacteria, archaea, yeasts, and fungi are encountered in acid mine waters, and a better understanding of their ecology and function may potentially enhance remediation possibilities as well as our understanding of the evolution of life.

A Framework for Mining Actionable Navigation Patterns from In-Store RFID Datasets via Indoor Mapping

PubMed Central

Shen, Bin; Zheng, Qiuhua; Li, Xingsen; Xu, Libo

2015-01-01

With the quick development of RFID technology and the decreasing prices of RFID devices, RFID is becoming widely used in various intelligent services. Especially in the retail application domain, RFID is increasingly adopted to capture the shopping tracks and behavior of in-store customers. To further enhance the potential of this promising application, in this paper, we propose a unified framework for RFID-based path analytics, which uses both in-store shopping paths and RFID-based purchasing data to mine actionable navigation patterns. Four modules of this framework are discussed, which are: (1) mapping from the physical space to the cyber space, (2) data preprocessing, (3) pattern mining and (4) knowledge understanding and utilization. In the data preprocessing module, the critical problem of how to capture the mainstream shopping path sequences while wiping out unnecessary redundant and repeated details is addressed in detail. To solve this problem, two types of redundant patterns, i.e., loop repeat pattern and palindrome-contained pattern are recognized and the corresponding processing algorithms are proposed. The experimental results show that the redundant pattern filtering functions are effective and scalable. Overall, this work builds a bridge between indoor positioning and advanced data mining technologies, and provides a feasible way to study customers’ shopping behaviors via multi-source RFID data. PMID:25751076

Recent progress in the joint multisensor mine-signatures database project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lewis, Adam M.; Verlinde, Patrick S. A.; Acheroy, Marc P. J.; Sieber, Alois J.

2002-08-01

The MsMs project is a major campaign to collect calibrated and well-documented data, suitable for use by workers developing advanced multisensor algorithms for antipersonnel mine detection. The data, together with a full description of the site layout and measurement protocols, are publicly available via the internet site http://demining.jrc.it/msms. Measurements are made on a test lane consisting of 7 plots of different soils, each 6m by 6m, populated with surrogate mines, calibration objects, simulated clutter and position markers. There are 48 targets in each plot, configured identically for all plots. A first report was presented last year. Since then, laser acoustic vibrometer and magnetometer data have been added and the metal detector and thermal infrared data have been augmented. The database has been reformatted to make it more uniform and user-friendly and to remove typographic mistakes. The test site remains essentially unchanged, apart from some equipment upgrades, and is available for further data collection. In particular, the targets have not been moved, so as to provide stable surrounding soil conditions representative of mines left undisturbed for long periods post-conflict. This presentation will describe the new data and data format, the status of the upgrades and the outlook for the future.

MineScan: non-image data monitoring and mining from imaging modalities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaidi, Shayan M.; Huff, Dov; Bhalodia, Pankit; Mongkolwat, Pattanasak; Channin, David S.

2003-05-01

This project is intended to capture and interactively display non-image information routinely generated by imaging modalities. This information relates to the device's performance of the individual procedures and is not necessarily available in other information streams such as DICOM headers. While originally intended for use in servicing the modalities, this information can also be presented to radiologists and administrators within the department for both micro- and macro-management purposes. This data can help hospital administrators and radiologists manage available resources and discover clues to indicate what modifications in hospital operations might significantly improve its ability to provide efficient patient care. Data is collected from a departmental CT scanner. The data consists of a running record of exams followed by a list of processing records logged over a 24-hour period. MineScan extracts information from these records and stores it into a database. A statistical program is run once a day to collect relevant metrics. MineScan can be accessed via a Web browser or through an advanced prototype PACS workstation. This information, if provided in real-time, can be used to manage operations in a busy department. Even when provided historically, the data can be used to assess current activity, analyze trends and plan future operations.

Sustainable Mineral-Intensive Growth in Odisha, India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nayak, S.

2012-04-01

The focus of the work is to highlight the present environmental and social impacts of extensive mining on the health of the common people of Odisha. The mining activities have created havoc impact to the environment and social life of the state. Odisha has huge deposits of ores and minerals of chromite, nickel, bauxite, iron, coal, copper, manganese, graphite, vanadium etc. The mining activities have encouraged rapid urbanization and at the same time have altered the topography of these areas and extensively degraded the forest land. For long term sustainable development of the society, it is necessary to take a balanced and integrated approach towards environmental protection and economic advancement. Industries should aim at achieving their goals, through a system of permits based on best available techniques, which gives emphasis on integrated prevention and control of consumption of energy and water as well as pollution of water, air and soil. The rapid industrial growth has brought promising opportunities for economic development and poverty reduction in Odisha but at the same time has caused extensive environmental degradation. The best management practices to deal with environmental and social impacts on mineral-intensive growth are suggested in this work. In addition to lean technology, economic implications of the introduction of environmental technologies for mining activities are also discussed.

Some aspects of forecasting the post-mining substratum deformation for evaluation of its influence on constructions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strzałkowski, Piotr; Ścigała, Roman; Szafulera, Katarzyna

2018-04-01

Some problems have been discussed, connected with performing predictions of post-mining terrain deformations. Especially problems occur with the summation of horizontal strain over long time intervals as well as predictions of linear discontinuous deformations. Of great importance in recent years is the problem of taking into account transient values of deformations associated with the development of extraction field. The exemplary analysis has been presented of planned extraction influences on two characteristic locations of building structure. The proposal has been shown of calculations with using transient deformation model allowing to describe the influence of extraction advance influence on the value of coefficient of extraction rate c (time factor), according to own original empirical formula.

Mining high-throughput experimental data to link gene and function

PubMed Central

Blaby-Haas, Crysten E.; de Crécy-Lagard, Valérie

2011-01-01

Nearly 2200 genomes encoding some 6 million proteins have now been sequenced. Around 40% of these proteins are of unknown function even when function is loosely and minimally defined as “belonging to a superfamily”. In addition to in silico methods, the swelling stream of high-throughput experimental data can give valuable clues for linking these “unknowns” with precise biological roles. The goal is to develop integrative data-mining platforms that allow the scientific community at large to access and utilize this rich source of experimental knowledge. To this end, we review recent advances in generating whole-genome experimental datasets, where this data can be accessed, and how it can be used to drive prediction of gene function. PMID:21310501

Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI): Resources for Mining Mouse Genetic, Genomic, and Biological Data in Support of Primary and Translational Research.

PubMed

Eppig, Janan T; Smith, Cynthia L; Blake, Judith A; Ringwald, Martin; Kadin, James A; Richardson, Joel E; Bult, Carol J

2017-01-01

The Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI), resource ( www.informatics.jax.org ) has existed for over 25 years, and over this time its data content, informatics infrastructure, and user interfaces and tools have undergone dramatic changes (Eppig et al., Mamm Genome 26:272-284, 2015). Change has been driven by scientific methodological advances, rapid improvements in computational software, growth in computer hardware capacity, and the ongoing collaborative nature of the mouse genomics community in building resources and sharing data. Here we present an overview of the current data content of MGI, describe its general organization, and provide examples using simple and complex searches, and tools for mining and retrieving sets of data.

Improving postapproval drug safety surveillance: getting better information sooner.

PubMed

Hennessy, Sean; Strom, Brian L

2015-01-01

Adverse drug events (ADEs) are an important public health concern, accounting for 5% of all hospital admissions and two-thirds of all complications occurring shortly after hospital discharge. There are often long delays between when a drug is approved and when serious ADEs are identified. Recent and ongoing advances in drug safety surveillance include the establishment of government-sponsored networks of population databases, the use of data mining approaches, and the formal integration of diverse sources of drug safety information. These advances promise to reduce delays in identifying drug-related risks and in providing reassurance about the absence of such risks.

Cost-Effectiveness of Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis Prevention Based on Its Predicted Incidence within the Datong Coal Mine Group in China

PubMed Central

Yuan, Juxiang; Han, Bing; Cui, Kai; Ding, Yu; Fan, Xueyun; Cao, Hong; Yao, Sanqiao; Suo, Xia; Sun, Zhiqian; Yun, Xiang; Hua, Zhengbing; Chen, Jie

2015-01-01

We aimed to estimate the economic losses currently caused by coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP) and, on the basis of these measurements, confirm the economic benefit of preventive measures. Our cohort study included 1,847 patients with CWP and 43,742 coal workers without CWP who were registered in the employment records of the Datong Coal Mine Group. We calculated the cumulative incidence rate of pneumoconiosis using the life-table method. We used the dose-response relationship between cumulative incidence density and cumulative dust exposure to predict the future trend in the incidence of CWP. We calculate the economic loss caused by CWP and economic effectiveness of CWP prevention by a step-wise model. The cumulative incidence rates of CWP in the tunneling, mining, combining, and helping cohorts were 58.7%, 28.1%, 21.7%, and 4.0%, respectively. The cumulative incidence rates increased gradually with increasing cumulative dust exposure (CDE). We predicted 4,300 new CWP cases, assuming the dust concentrations remained at the levels of 2011. If advanced dustproof equipment was adopted, 537 fewer people would be diagnosed with CWP. In all, losses of 1.207 billion Renminbi (RMB, official currency of China) would be prevented and 4,698.8 healthy life years would be gained. Investments in advanced dustproof equipment would be total 843 million RMB, according to our study; the ratio of investment to restored economic losses was 1:1.43. Controlling workplace dust concentrations is critical to reduce the onset of pneumoconiosis and to achieve economic benefits. PMID:26098706

Pacific Research Platform - Creation of a West Coast Big Data Freeway System Applied to the CONNected objECT (CONNECT) Data Mining Framework for Earth Science Knowledge Discovery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sellars, S. L.; Nguyen, P.; Tatar, J.; Graham, J.; Kawsenuk, B.; DeFanti, T.; Smarr, L.; Sorooshian, S.; Ralph, M.

2017-12-01

A new era in computational earth sciences is within our grasps with the availability of ever-increasing earth observational data, enhanced computational capabilities, and innovative computation approaches that allow for the assimilation, analysis and ability to model the complex earth science phenomena. The Pacific Research Platform (PRP), CENIC and associated technologies such as the Flash I/O Network Appliance (FIONA) provide scientists a unique capability for advancing towards this new era. This presentation reports on the development of multi-institutional rapid data access capabilities and data pipeline for applying a novel image characterization and segmentation approach, CONNected objECT (CONNECT) algorithm to study Atmospheric River (AR) events impacting the Western United States. ARs are often associated with torrential rains, swollen rivers, flash flooding, and mudslides. CONNECT is computationally intensive, reliant on very large data transfers, storage and data mining techniques. The ability to apply the method to multiple variables and datasets located at different University of California campuses has previously been challenged by inadequate network bandwidth and computational constraints. The presentation will highlight how the inter-campus CONNECT data mining framework improved from our prior download speeds of 10MB/s to 500MB/s using the PRP and the FIONAs. We present a worked example using the NASA MERRA data to describe how the PRP and FIONA have provided researchers with the capability for advancing knowledge about ARs. Finally, we will discuss future efforts to expand the scope to additional variables in earth sciences.

On-Board Mining in the Sensor Web

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanner, S.; Conover, H.; Graves, S.; Ramachandran, R.; Rushing, J.

2004-12-01

On-board data mining can contribute to many research and engineering applications, including natural hazard detection and prediction, intelligent sensor control, and the generation of customized data products for direct distribution to users. The ability to mine sensor data in real time can also be a critical component of autonomous operations, supporting deep space missions, unmanned aerial and ground-based vehicles (UAVs, UGVs), and a wide range of sensor meshes, webs and grids. On-board processing is expected to play a significant role in the next generation of NASA, Homeland Security, Department of Defense and civilian programs, providing for greater flexibility and versatility in measurements of physical systems. In addition, the use of UAV and UGV systems is increasing in military, emergency response and industrial applications. As research into the autonomy of these vehicles progresses, especially in fleet or web configurations, the applicability of on-board data mining is expected to increase significantly. Data mining in real time on board sensor platforms presents unique challenges. Most notably, the data to be mined is a continuous stream, rather than a fixed store such as a database. This means that the data mining algorithms must be modified to make only a single pass through the data. In addition, the on-board environment requires real time processing with limited computing resources, thus the algorithms must use fixed and relatively small amounts of processing time and memory. The University of Alabama in Huntsville is developing an innovative processing framework for the on-board data and information environment. The Environment for On-Board Processing (EVE) and the Adaptive On-board Data Processing (AODP) projects serve as proofs-of-concept of advanced information systems for remote sensing platforms. The EVE real-time processing infrastructure will upload, schedule and control the execution of processing plans on board remote sensors. These plans provide capabilities for autonomous data mining, classification and feature extraction using both streaming and buffered data sources. A ground-based testbed provides a heterogeneous, embedded hardware and software environment representing both space-based and ground-based sensor platforms, including wireless sensor mesh architectures. The AODP project explores the EVE concepts in the world of sensor-networks, including ad-hoc networks of small sensor platforms.

Filling the gap between biology and computer science

PubMed Central

Aguilar-Ruiz, Jesús S; Moore, Jason H; Ritchie, Marylyn D

2008-01-01

This editorial introduces BioData Mining, a new journal which publishes research articles related to advances in computational methods and techniques for the extraction of useful knowledge from heterogeneous biological data. We outline the aims and scope of the journal, introduce the publishing model and describe the open peer review policy, which fosters interaction within the research community. PMID:18822148

From scientific discovery to cures: bright stars within a galaxy.

PubMed

Williams, R Sanders; Lotia, Samad; Holloway, Alisha K; Pico, Alexander R

2015-09-24

We propose that data mining and network analysis utilizing public databases can identify and quantify relationships between scientific discoveries and major advances in medicine (cures). Further development of such approaches could help to increase public understanding and governmental support for life science research and could enhance decision making in the quest for cures. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improvement of the Prediction of Drugs Demand Using Spatial Data Mining Tools.

PubMed

Ramos, M Isabel; Cubillas, Juan José; Feito, Francisco R

2016-01-01

The continued availability of products at any store is the major issue in order to provide good customer service. If the store is a drugstore this matter reaches a greater importance, as out of stock of a drug when there is high demand causes problems and tensions in the healthcare system. There are numerous studies of the impact this issue has on patients. The lack of any drug in a pharmacy in certain seasons is very common, especially when some external factors proliferate favoring the occurrence of certain diseases. This study focuses on a particular drug consumed in the city of Jaen, southern Andalucia, Spain. Our goal is to determine in advance the Salbutamol demand. Advanced data mining techniques have been used with spatial variables. These last have a key role to generate an effective model. In this research we have used the attributes that are associated with Salbutamol demand and it has been generated a very accurate prediction model of 5.78% of mean absolute error. This is a very encouraging data considering that the consumption of this drug in Jaen varies 500% from one period to another.

Advanced Coal Liquefaction Research and Development Facility, Wilsonville, Alabama. Run 260 with Black Thunder Mine subbituminous coal: Technical progress report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

This report presents the results of Run 260 performed at the Advanced Coal Liquefaction R&D Facility in Wilsonville. The run was started on July 17, 1990 and continued until November 14, 1990, operating in the Close-Coupled Integrated Two-Stage Liquefaction mode processing Black Thunder mine subbituminous coal (Wyodak-Anderson seam from Wyoming Powder River Basin). Both thermal/catalytic and catalytic/thermal tests were performed to determine the methods for reducing solids buildup in a subbituminous coal operation, and to improve product yields. A new, smaller interstage separator was tested to reduce solids buildup by increasing the slurry space velocity in the separator. In ordermore » to obtain improved coal and resid conversions (compared to Run 258) full-volume thermal reactor and 3/4-volume catalytic reactor were used. Shell 324 catalyst, 1/16 in. cylindrical extrudate, at a replacement rate of 3 lb/ton of MF coal was used in the catalytic stage. Iron oxide was used as slurry catalyst at a rate of 2 wt % MF coal throughout the run. (TNPS was the sulfiding agent.)« less

Telerobotic Perception During Asteroid and Mars Regolith Operations Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gaddis, Steven; Zeitlin, Nancy (Compiler); Mueller, Robert (Compiler)

2015-01-01

Current space telerobotic systems are constrained to only operating in bright light and dust-free conditions. This project will study the effects of difficult lighting and dust conditions on telerobotic perception systems to better assess and refine regolith operations on other neighboring celestial bodies. In partnership with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Caterpillar, Inc., optical, LiDAR and RADAR sensing equipment will be used in performing the study. This project will create a known dust environment in the Swamp Works Granular Mechanics & Regolith Operations (GMRO) Laboratory regolith test bin to characterize the behavior of the sensing equipment in various calibrated lighting and dust conditions. It will also identify potential methods for mitigating the impacts of these undesirable conditions on the performance of the sensing equipment. Enhancing the capability of telerobotic perception systems will help improve life on earth for those working in dangerous, dusty mining conditions, as well as help advance the same technologies used for safer self-driving automobiles in various lighting and weather conditions. It will also prove to be a critical skill needed for advancing robotic and human exploration throughout our solar system, for activities such as mining on an asteroid or pioneering the first colony on Mars.

Literature mining, gene-set enrichment and pathway analysis for target identification in Behçet's disease.

PubMed

Wilson, Paul; Larminie, Christopher; Smith, Rona

2016-01-01

To use literature mining to catalogue Behçet's associated genes, and advanced computational methods to improve the understanding of the pathways and signalling mechanisms that lead to the typical clinical characteristics of Behçet's patients. To extend this technique to identify potential treatment targets for further experimental validation. Text mining methods combined with gene enrichment tools, pathway analysis and causal analysis algorithms. This approach identified 247 human genes associated with Behçet's disease and the resulting disease map, comprising 644 nodes and 19220 edges, captured important details of the relationships between these genes and their associated pathways, as described in diverse data repositories. Pathway analysis has identified how Behçet's associated genes are likely to participate in innate and adaptive immune responses. Causal analysis algorithms have identified a number of potential therapeutic strategies for further investigation. Computational methods have captured pertinent features of the prominent disease characteristics presented in Behçet's disease and have highlighted NOD2, ICOS and IL18 signalling as potential therapeutic strategies.

Improving Prediction Accuracy of “Central Line-Associated Blood Stream Infections” Using Data Mining Models

PubMed Central

Noaman, Amin Y.; Jamjoom, Arwa; Al-Abdullah, Nabeela; Nasir, Mahreen; Ali, Anser G.

2017-01-01

Prediction of nosocomial infections among patients is an important part of clinical surveillance programs to enable the related personnel to take preventive actions in advance. Designing a clinical surveillance program with capability of predicting nosocomial infections is a challenging task due to several reasons, including high dimensionality of medical data, heterogenous data representation, and special knowledge required to extract patterns for prediction. In this paper, we present details of six data mining methods implemented using cross industry standard process for data mining to predict central line-associated blood stream infections. For our study, we selected datasets of healthcare-associated infections from US National Healthcare Safety Network and consumer survey data from Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. Our experiments show that central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) can be successfully predicted using AdaBoost method with an accuracy up to 89.7%. This will help in implementing effective clinical surveillance programs for infection control, as well as improving the accuracy detection of CLABSIs. Also, this reduces patients' hospital stay cost and maintains patients' safety. PMID:29085836

Abatement of mercury pollution in the small-scale gold mining industry: restructuring the policy and research agendas.

PubMed

Hilson, Gavin

2006-06-01

This paper critiques contemporary research and policy approaches taken toward the analysis and abatement of mercury pollution in the small-scale gold mining sector. Unmonitored releases of mercury from gold amalgamation have caused considerable environmental contamination and human health complications in rural reaches of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. Whilst these problems have caught the attention of the scientific community over the past 15-20 years, the research that has since been undertaken has failed to identify appropriate mitigation measures, and has done little to advance understanding of why contamination persists. Moreover, the strategies used to educate operators about the impacts of acute mercury exposure, and the technologies implemented to prevent further pollution, have been marginally effective at best. The mercury pollution problem will not be resolved until governments and donor agencies commit to carrying out research aimed at improving understanding of the dynamics of small scale gold mining communities. Acquisition of this knowledge is the key to designing and implementing appropriate support and abatement measures.

Optimizing the use of video-tapes of clinical sessions: the data-mining approach for scale construction and theory building for bereaved persons in Hong Kong.

PubMed

Chow, Amy Yin Man

2010-01-01

Video-taping clinical sessions is a common practice among social workers so that the tapes may be used for clinical supervision and reviewed with the individuals or families involved. They are usually underused for research purposes. This article reports on an innovative research method using such tapes as a basis for clinical data mining to explore the bereavement experience of Chinese people in Hong Kong. Using this data, a rich item pool, containing both negative and positive reactions, was generated to allow the development of a culturally relevant measurement tool of grief reactions. The data also facilitated theory building in the area of grief and bereavement. This study extended the use of video-tapes in clinical sessions for research purposes and helped to collect reliable and timely data in a non-intrusive way. It has also advanced the use of quantitative data in the clinical data-mining approach. The study encouraged collaboration between clinicians and researchers to develop knowledge and skills about their special target group of clients.

Comparison of data mining techniques applied to fetal heart rate parameters for the early identification of IUGR fetuses.

PubMed

Magenes, G; Bellazzi, R; Malovini, A; Signorini, M G

2016-08-01

The onset of fetal pathologies can be screened during pregnancy by means of Fetal Heart Rate (FHR) monitoring and analysis. Noticeable advances in understanding FHR variations were obtained in the last twenty years, thanks to the introduction of quantitative indices extracted from the FHR signal. This study searches for discriminating Normal and Intra Uterine Growth Restricted (IUGR) fetuses by applying data mining techniques to FHR parameters, obtained from recordings in a population of 122 fetuses (61 healthy and 61 IUGRs), through standard CTG non-stress test. We computed N=12 indices (N=4 related to time domain FHR analysis, N=4 to frequency domain and N=4 to non-linear analysis) and normalized them with respect to the gestational week. We compared, through a 10-fold crossvalidation procedure, 15 data mining techniques in order to select the more reliable approach for identifying IUGR fetuses. The results of this comparison highlight that two techniques (Random Forest and Logistic Regression) show the best classification accuracy and that both outperform the best single parameter in terms of mean AUROC on the test sets.

Finding a Needle in the Haystack: Identification of Functionally Important Minority Phases in an Operating Battery.

PubMed

Zhang, Kai; Ren, Fang; Wang, Xuelong; Hu, Enyuan; Xu, Yahong; Yang, Xiao-Qing; Li, Hong; Chen, Liquan; Pianetta, Piero; Mehta, Apurva; Yu, Xiqian; Liu, Yijin

2017-12-13

The in-depth understanding of the minority phases' roles in functional materials, e.g., batteries, is critical for optimizing the system performance and the operational efficiency. Although the visualization of battery electrode under operating conditions has been demonstrated, the development of advanced data-mining approaches is still needed in order to identify minority phases and to understand their functionalities. The present study uses nanoscale X-ray spectromicroscopy to study a functional LiCoO 2 /Li battery pouch cell. The data-mining approaches developed herein were used to search through over 10 million X-ray absorption spectra that cover more than 100 active cathode particles. Two particles with unanticipated chemical fingerprints were identified and further analyzed, providing direct evidence and valuable insight into the undesired side reactions involving the cation dissolution and precipitation as well as the local overlithiation-caused subparticle domain deactivation. The data-mining approach described in this work is widely applicable to many other structurally complex and chemically heterogeneous systems, in which the secondary/minority phases could critically affect the overall performance of the system, well beyond battery research.

Introduction to the hydrogeochemical investigations within the International Stripa Project

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nordstrom, D. Kirk; Olsson, T.; Carlsson, L.; Fritz, P.

1989-01-01

The International Stripa Project (1980-1990) has sponsored hydrogeochemical investigations at several subsurface drillholes in the granitic portion of an abandoned iron ore mine, central Sweden. The purpose has been to advance our understanding of geochemical processes in crystalline bedrock that may affect the safety assessment of high-level radioactive waste repositories. More than a dozen investigators have collected close to a thousand water and gas samples for chemical and isotopic analyses to develop concepts for the behavior of solutes in a granitic repository environment. The Stripa granite is highly radioactive and has provided an exceptional opportunity to study the behavior of natural radionuclides, especially subsurface production. Extensive microfracturing, low permeability with isolated fracture zones of high permeability, unusual water chemistry, and a typical granitic mineral assemblage with thin veins and fracture coatings of calcite, chlorite, seriate, epidote and quartz characterize the site. Preliminary groundwater flow modeling indicates that the mine has perturbed the flow environment to a depth of about 3 km and may have induced deep groundwaters to flow into the mine. ?? 1989.

Factors and competitiveness analysis in rare earth mining, new methodology: case study from Brazil.

PubMed

Silva, Gustavo A; Petter, Carlos O; Albuquerque, Nelson R

2018-03-01

Rare earths are increasingly being applied in high-tech industries, such as green energy (e.g. wind power), hybrid cars, electric cars, permanent high-performance magnets, superconductors, luminophores and many other industrial sectors involved in modern technologies. Given that China dominates this market and imposes restrictions on production and exports whenever opportunities arise, it is becoming more and more challenging to develop business ventures in this sector. Several initiatives were taken to prospect new resources and develop the production chain, including the mining of these mineral assets around the world, but some factors of uncertainties, including current low prices, increased the challenge of transforming the current resources into deposits or productive mines. Thus, analyzing the competitiveness of advanced projects becomes indispensable. This work has the objective of introducing a new methodology of competitiveness analysis, where some variables are considered as main factors that can contribute strongly to make unfeasible a mining enterprise for the use of rare earth elements (REE) with this methodology, which is quite practical and reproducible, it was possible to verify some real facts, such as: the fact that the Lynas Mount Weld CLD (AUS) Project is resilient to the uncertainties of the RE sector, at the same time as the Molycorp Project is facing major financial difficulties (under judicial reorganization). It was also possible to verify that the Araxá Project of CBMM in Brazil is one of the most competitive in this country. Thus, we contribute to the existing literature, providing a new methodology for competitiveness analysis in rare earth mining.

A Conceptual Hydrogeologic Model of the Vicinity of DUSEL Homestake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murdoch, L. C.; Germanovich, L. N.; Boutt, D. F.; Kieft, T. L.; Wang, H. F.; Onstott, T. C.

2009-12-01

The Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) is a research facility planned to occupy the workings of the former Homestake gold mine in the northern Black Hills, South Dakota. The hydrogeology was of minor importance to locating and recovering gold ore, so it was overlooked during mining and is relatively unknown. This knowledge gap hinders planning of the Deep EcoHydrology Experiment at DUSEL and motivated the work described here. The conceptual hydrogeologic model is characterized by permeability that is assumed to be anisotropic and controlled by regional foliation, which strikes approximately N20W and dips steeply to the NE. Permeability is on the order of 0.1 mD in fresh rock, but increases to roughly 100 mD at shallow depths. The permeability distribution is assumed to result from unloading of the foliated rock, and a simple model of stress-dependence explains the permeability distribution and suggests that the more permeable zone is on the order of ~100 m thick. A stream hydrograph from Whitetail Creek (station 06436156) was analyzed to estimate recharge flux and the result indicates an average value of approximately 5 x 10-9 m/s. A numerical model of the vicinity of the mine was developed by representing the mine workings as a dual- porosity inclusion embedded in a single-porosity, anisotropic material. The extent of the dual-porosity medium was advanced downward based on the mining records and the hydraulic head within the material representing the mine workings was adjusted to represent filling and draining of the workings. The results suggest that the groundwater is characterized by a shallow flow system of distributed recharge that mostly discharges to nearby streams. The mine itself acts like a large sink that moves downward and to the southeast during mining, and then is controlled by variations in pumping rate once the mine reaches its greatest depth. The deep flow system consists of (i) a zone of relatively rapid flow from the ground surface to the mine workings overlying the southern part of the mine, and (ii) a much larger ellipsoidal zone extending up to several km from the workings where water has been removed from storage. Maximum downward fluxes in the deep system are less than the recharge rate because flow occurs at unit head gradient and the permeability of the rock is relatively low (~0.1 mD). This explains why dewatering has negligible impact on overlying streams and suggests that the regional water table remains within the shallow flow system. The results also indicate that water on the southern side of the mine is probably quite young (<~1 yr) and influenced by recent recharge, whereas water on the north side is much older and affected by removal from storage in deep pore space. The observed dewatering rate at the mine can be explained without requiring additional inflow from a large open pit or other surficial workings.

Functional evaluation of out-of-the-box text-mining tools for data-mining tasks

PubMed Central

Jung, Kenneth; LePendu, Paea; Iyer, Srinivasan; Bauer-Mehren, Anna; Percha, Bethany; Shah, Nigam H

2015-01-01

Objective The trade-off between the speed and simplicity of dictionary-based term recognition and the richer linguistic information provided by more advanced natural language processing (NLP) is an area of active discussion in clinical informatics. In this paper, we quantify this trade-off among text processing systems that make different trade-offs between speed and linguistic understanding. We tested both types of systems in three clinical research tasks: phase IV safety profiling of a drug, learning adverse drug–drug interactions, and learning used-to-treat relationships between drugs and indications. Materials We first benchmarked the accuracy of the NCBO Annotator and REVEAL in a manually annotated, publically available dataset from the 2008 i2b2 Obesity Challenge. We then applied the NCBO Annotator and REVEAL to 9 million clinical notes from the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment (STRIDE) and used the resulting data for three research tasks. Results There is no significant difference between using the NCBO Annotator and REVEAL in the results of the three research tasks when using large datasets. In one subtask, REVEAL achieved higher sensitivity with smaller datasets. Conclusions For a variety of tasks, employing simple term recognition methods instead of advanced NLP methods results in little or no impact on accuracy when using large datasets. Simpler dictionary-based methods have the advantage of scaling well to very large datasets. Promoting the use of simple, dictionary-based methods for population level analyses can advance adoption of NLP in practice. PMID:25336595

Health and safety evaluation of a modified tunnel borer design for application to single entry coal mine development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zimmerman, W. F.

1982-01-01

A health and safety analysis of a single entry coal tunnel borer system is given. The results of the health analysis indicated that while the tunnel borer design offered improvements in dust control through the use of water sprays, a higher face ventilation rule, and the application of spalling rather than the conventional grinding process, it interjected an additional mutagen and toxic compound into the environment through the use of shotcrete. The tunnel borer system easily conformed with the prescribed fatality limit, but exceeded the required limits for disabling and overall injuries. It also exhibited projected disabling and overall injury rates considerably higher than existing continuous mining injury rates. Consequently, the tunnel borer system was not considered an advanced system.

Mining high-throughput experimental data to link gene and function.

PubMed

Blaby-Haas, Crysten E; de Crécy-Lagard, Valérie

2011-04-01

Nearly 2200 genomes that encode around 6 million proteins have now been sequenced. Around 40% of these proteins are of unknown function, even when function is loosely and minimally defined as 'belonging to a superfamily'. In addition to in silico methods, the swelling stream of high-throughput experimental data can give valuable clues for linking these unknowns with precise biological roles. The goal is to develop integrative data-mining platforms that allow the scientific community at large to access and utilize this rich source of experimental knowledge. To this end, we review recent advances in generating whole-genome experimental datasets, where this data can be accessed, and how it can be used to drive prediction of gene function. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Knowledge-guided mutation in classification rules for autism treatment efficacy.

PubMed

Engle, Kelley; Rada, Roy

2017-03-01

Data mining methods in biomedical research might benefit by combining genetic algorithms with domain-specific knowledge. The objective of this research is to show how the evolution of treatment rules for autism might be guided. The semantic distance between two concepts in the taxonomy is measured by the number of relationships separating the concepts in the taxonomy. The hypothesis is that replacing a concept in a treatment rule will change the accuracy of the rule in direct proportion to the semantic distance between the concepts. The method uses a patient database and autism taxonomies. Treatment rules are developed with an algorithm that exploits the taxonomies. The results support the hypothesis. This research should both advance the understanding of autism data mining in particular and of knowledge-guided evolutionary search in biomedicine in general.

Analysis characteristics determination of electrohydraulic control system operation to reduce the operation time of a powered roof support

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Szurgacz, Dawid

2018-01-01

The article discusses basic functions of a powered roof support in a longwall unit. The support function is to provide safety by protecting mine workings against uncontrolled falling of rocks. The subject of the research includes the measures to shorten the time of roof support shifting. The roof support is adapted to transfer, in hazard conditions of rock mass tremors, dynamic loads caused by mining exploitation. The article presents preliminary research results on the time reduction of the unit advance to increase the extraction process and thus reduce operating costs. Conducted stand tests showed the ability to increase the flow for 3/2-way valve cartridges. The level of fluid flowing through the cartridges is adequate to control individual actuators.

Microbial Ecology and Evolution in the Acid Mine Drainage Model System.

PubMed

Huang, Li-Nan; Kuang, Jia-Liang; Shu, Wen-Sheng

2016-07-01

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a unique ecological niche for acid- and toxic-metals-adapted microorganisms. These low-complexity systems offer a special opportunity for the ecological and evolutionary analyses of natural microbial assemblages. The last decade has witnessed an unprecedented interest in the study of AMD communities using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing and community genomic and postgenomic methodologies, significantly advancing our understanding of microbial diversity, community function, and evolution in acidic environments. This review describes new data on AMD microbial ecology and evolution, especially dynamics of microbial diversity, community functions, and population genomes, and further identifies gaps in our current knowledge that future research, with integrated applications of meta-omics technologies, will fill. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Developing and Implementing the Data Mining Algorithms in RAVEN

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sen, Ramazan Sonat; Maljovec, Daniel Patrick; Alfonsi, Andrea

The RAVEN code is becoming a comprehensive tool to perform probabilistic risk assessment, uncertainty quantification, and verification and validation. The RAVEN code is being developed to support many programs and to provide a set of methodologies and algorithms for advanced analysis. Scientific computer codes can generate enormous amounts of data. To post-process and analyze such data might, in some cases, take longer than the initial software runtime. Data mining algorithms/methods help in recognizing and understanding patterns in the data, and thus discover knowledge in databases. The methodologies used in the dynamic probabilistic risk assessment or in uncertainty and error quantificationmore » analysis couple system/physics codes with simulation controller codes, such as RAVEN. RAVEN introduces both deterministic and stochastic elements into the simulation while the system/physics code model the dynamics deterministically. A typical analysis is performed by sampling values of a set of parameter values. A major challenge in using dynamic probabilistic risk assessment or uncertainty and error quantification analysis for a complex system is to analyze the large number of scenarios generated. Data mining techniques are typically used to better organize and understand data, i.e. recognizing patterns in the data. This report focuses on development and implementation of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for different data mining algorithms, and the application of these algorithms to different databases.« less

Adaptation of soil microbial community structure and function to chronic metal contamination at an abandoned Pb-Zn mine.

PubMed

Epelde, Lur; Lanzén, Anders; Blanco, Fernando; Urich, Tim; Garbisu, Carlos

2015-01-01

Toxicity of metals released from mine tailings may cause severe damage to ecosystems. A diversity of microorganisms, however, have successfully adapted to such sites. In this study, our objective was to advance the understanding of the indigenous microbial communities of mining-impacted soils. To this end, a metatranscriptomic approach was used to study a heavily metal-contaminated site along a metal concentration gradient (up to 3220 000 and 97 000 mg kg(-1) of Cd, Pb and Zn, respectively) resulting from previous mining. Metal concentration, soil pH and amount of clay were the most important factors determining the structure of soil microbial communities. Interestingly, evenness of the microbial communities, but not its richness, increased with contamination level. Taxa with high metabolic plasticity like Ktedonobacteria and Chloroflexi were found with higher relative abundance in more contaminated samples. However, several taxa belonging to the phyla Actinobacteria and Acidobacteria followed opposite trends in relation to metal pollution. Besides, functional transcripts related to transposition or transfer of genetic material and membrane transport, potentially involved in metal resistance mechanisms, had a higher expression in more contaminated samples. Our results provide an insight into microbial communities in long-term metal-contaminated environments and how they contrast to nearby sites with lower contamination. © FEMS 2014. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Modeling Crustal Deformation Due to the Landers, Hector Mine Earthquakes Using the SCEC Community Fault Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gable, C. W.; Fialko, Y.; Hager, B. H.; Plesch, A.; Williams, C. A.

2006-12-01

More realistic models of crustal deformation are possible due to advances in measurements and modeling capabilities. This study integrates various data to constrain a finite element model of stress and strain in the vicinity of the 1992 Landers earthquake and the 1999 Hector Mine earthquake. The geometry of the model is designed to incorporate the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), Community Fault Model (CFM) to define fault geometry. The Hector Mine fault is represented by a single surface that follows the trace of the Hector Mine fault, is vertical and has variable depth. The fault associated with the Landers earthquake is a set of seven surfaces that capture the geometry of the splays and echelon offsets of the fault. A three dimensional finite element mesh of tetrahedral elements is built that closely maintains the geometry of these fault surfaces. The spatially variable coseismic slip on faults is prescribed based on an inversion of geodetic (Synthetic Aperture Radar and Global Positioning System) data. Time integration of stress and strain is modeled with the finite element code Pylith. As a first step the methodology of incorporating all these data is described. Results of the time history of the stress and strain transfer between 1992 and 1999 are analyzed as well as the time history of deformation from 1999 to the present.

Function Clustering Self-Organization Maps (FCSOMs) for mining differentially expressed genes in Drosophila and its correlation with the growth medium.

PubMed

Liu, L L; Liu, M J; Ma, M

2015-09-28

The central task of this study was to mine the gene-to-medium relationship. Adequate knowledge of this relationship could potentially improve the accuracy of differentially expressed gene mining. One of the approaches to differentially expressed gene mining uses conventional clustering algorithms to identify the gene-to-medium relationship. Compared to conventional clustering algorithms, self-organization maps (SOMs) identify the nonlinear aspects of the gene-to-medium relationships by mapping the input space into another higher dimensional feature space. However, SOMs are not suitable for huge datasets consisting of millions of samples. Therefore, a new computational model, the Function Clustering Self-Organization Maps (FCSOMs), was developed. FCSOMs take advantage of the theory of granular computing as well as advanced statistical learning methodologies, and are built specifically for each information granule (a function cluster of genes), which are intelligently partitioned by the clustering algorithm provided by the DAVID_6.7 software platform. However, only the gene functions, and not their expression values, are considered in the fuzzy clustering algorithm of DAVID. Compared to the clustering algorithm of DAVID, these experimental results show a marked improvement in the accuracy of classification with the application of FCSOMs. FCSOMs can handle huge datasets and their complex classification problems, as each FCSOM (modeled for each function cluster) can be easily parallelized.

Mining the pharmacogenomics literature—a survey of the state of the art

PubMed Central

Cohen, K. Bretonnel; Garten, Yael; Shah, Nigam H.

2012-01-01

This article surveys efforts on text mining of the pharmacogenomics literature, mainly from the period 2008 to 2011. Pharmacogenomics (or pharmacogenetics) is the field that studies how human genetic variation impacts drug response. Therefore, publications span the intersection of research in genotypes, phenotypes and pharmacology, a topic that has increasingly become a focus of active research in recent years. This survey covers efforts dealing with the automatic recognition of relevant named entities (e.g. genes, gene variants and proteins, diseases and other pathological phenomena, drugs and other chemicals relevant for medical treatment), as well as various forms of relations between them. A wide range of text genres is considered, such as scientific publications (abstracts, as well as full texts), patent texts and clinical narratives. We also discuss infrastructure and resources needed for advanced text analytics, e.g. document corpora annotated with corresponding semantic metadata (gold standards and training data), biomedical terminologies and ontologies providing domain-specific background knowledge at different levels of formality and specificity, software architectures for building complex and scalable text analytics pipelines and Web services grounded to them, as well as comprehensive ways to disseminate and interact with the typically huge amounts of semiformal knowledge structures extracted by text mining tools. Finally, we consider some of the novel applications that have already been developed in the field of pharmacogenomic text mining and point out perspectives for future research. PMID:22833496

Mining the pharmacogenomics literature--a survey of the state of the art.

PubMed

Hahn, Udo; Cohen, K Bretonnel; Garten, Yael; Shah, Nigam H

2012-07-01

This article surveys efforts on text mining of the pharmacogenomics literature, mainly from the period 2008 to 2011. Pharmacogenomics (or pharmacogenetics) is the field that studies how human genetic variation impacts drug response. Therefore, publications span the intersection of research in genotypes, phenotypes and pharmacology, a topic that has increasingly become a focus of active research in recent years. This survey covers efforts dealing with the automatic recognition of relevant named entities (e.g. genes, gene variants and proteins, diseases and other pathological phenomena, drugs and other chemicals relevant for medical treatment), as well as various forms of relations between them. A wide range of text genres is considered, such as scientific publications (abstracts, as well as full texts), patent texts and clinical narratives. We also discuss infrastructure and resources needed for advanced text analytics, e.g. document corpora annotated with corresponding semantic metadata (gold standards and training data), biomedical terminologies and ontologies providing domain-specific background knowledge at different levels of formality and specificity, software architectures for building complex and scalable text analytics pipelines and Web services grounded to them, as well as comprehensive ways to disseminate and interact with the typically huge amounts of semiformal knowledge structures extracted by text mining tools. Finally, we consider some of the novel applications that have already been developed in the field of pharmacogenomic text mining and point out perspectives for future research.

Final Progress Report, Renewable and Logistics Fuels for Fuel Cells at the Colorado School of Mines

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sullivan, Neal P.

The objective of this program is to advance the current state of technology of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) to improve performance when operating on renewable and logistics hydrocarbon fuel streams. Outcomes will include: 1.) new SOFC materials and architectures that address the technical challenges associated with carbon-deposit formation and sulfur poisoning; 2.) new integration strategies for combining fuel reformers with SOFCs; 3.) advanced modeling tools that bridge the scales of fundamental charge-transfer chemistry to system operation and control; and 4.) outreach through creation of the Distinguished Lecturer Series to promote nationwide collaboration with fuel-cell researchers and scientists.

BioTextQuest(+): a knowledge integration platform for literature mining and concept discovery.

PubMed

Papanikolaou, Nikolas; Pavlopoulos, Georgios A; Pafilis, Evangelos; Theodosiou, Theodosios; Schneider, Reinhard; Satagopam, Venkata P; Ouzounis, Christos A; Eliopoulos, Aristides G; Promponas, Vasilis J; Iliopoulos, Ioannis

2014-11-15

The iterative process of finding relevant information in biomedical literature and performing bioinformatics analyses might result in an endless loop for an inexperienced user, considering the exponential growth of scientific corpora and the plethora of tools designed to mine PubMed(®) and related biological databases. Herein, we describe BioTextQuest(+), a web-based interactive knowledge exploration platform with significant advances to its predecessor (BioTextQuest), aiming to bridge processes such as bioentity recognition, functional annotation, document clustering and data integration towards literature mining and concept discovery. BioTextQuest(+) enables PubMed and OMIM querying, retrieval of abstracts related to a targeted request and optimal detection of genes, proteins, molecular functions, pathways and biological processes within the retrieved documents. The front-end interface facilitates the browsing of document clustering per subject, the analysis of term co-occurrence, the generation of tag clouds containing highly represented terms per cluster and at-a-glance popup windows with information about relevant genes and proteins. Moreover, to support experimental research, BioTextQuest(+) addresses integration of its primary functionality with biological repositories and software tools able to deliver further bioinformatics services. The Google-like interface extends beyond simple use by offering a range of advanced parameterization for expert users. We demonstrate the functionality of BioTextQuest(+) through several exemplary research scenarios including author disambiguation, functional term enrichment, knowledge acquisition and concept discovery linking major human diseases, such as obesity and ageing. The service is accessible at http://bioinformatics.med.uoc.gr/biotextquest. g.pavlopoulos@gmail.com or georgios.pavlopoulos@esat.kuleuven.be Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Potential Standards and Methods for the National Guard’s Homeland Response Force

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-09-01

rapidly determine a missile launch and probable impact area ( Opall -Rome, 2009). Since 2006, Color Red coverage has expanded throughout the country...Manportable Air Defense (MANPAD) systems, land mines , advanced communication systems, mortars, unmanned air systems (UAS), frequency-hopping...Consequence Management Response Force (CCMRF). Internal document. Opall -Rome, B. (2009, January19). In Israel: Anti-sniper gear spots rockets

Complex Event Processing for Content-Based Text, Image, and Video Retrieval

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-01

NY): Wiley- Interscience; 2000. Feldman R, Sanger J. The text mining handbook: advanced approaches in analyzing unstructured data. New York (NY...ARL-TR-7705 ● JUNE 2016 US Army Research Laboratory Complex Event Processing for Content-Based Text , Image, and Video Retrieval...ARL-TR-7705 ● JUNE 2016 US Army Research Laboratory Complex Event Processing for Content-Based Text , Image, and Video Retrieval

Macromolecule Mass Spectrometry: Citation Mining of User Documents

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-11-14

MCLUCKEY SA PURDUE UNIV USA 541 MANN M UNIV SO DENMARK DENMARK 450 BIEMANN K MIT USA 343 CHOWDHURY SK SANOFI WINTHROP INC USA 302 COVEY TR SCIEX LTD CANADA...glycopeptid 0.7, residu 0.7) (36) Cluster 8 (proteom 10.8, technolog 5.8, protein 5.7, genom 5.5, function 2.7, advanc 1.5, vaccin 1.2, new 1.1, biolog 1.1

Advanced Query and Data Mining Capabilities for MaROS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Paul; Wallick, Michael N.; Allard, Daniel A.; Gladden, Roy E.; Hy, Franklin H.

2013-01-01

The Mars Relay Operational Service (MaROS) comprises a number of tools to coordinate, plan, and visualize various aspects of the Mars Relay network. These levels include a Web-based user interface, a back-end "ReSTlet" built in Java, and databases that store the data as it is received from the network. As part of MaROS, the innovators have developed and implemented a feature set that operates on several levels of the software architecture. This new feature is an advanced querying capability through either the Web-based user interface, or through a back-end REST interface to access all of the data gathered from the network. This software is not meant to replace the REST interface, but to augment and expand the range of available data. The current REST interface provides specific data that is used by the MaROS Web application to display and visualize the information; however, the returned information from the REST interface has typically been pre-processed to return only a subset of the entire information within the repository, particularly only the information that is of interest to the GUI (graphical user interface). The new, advanced query and data mining capabilities allow users to retrieve the raw data and/or to perform their own data processing. The query language used to access the repository is a restricted subset of the structured query language (SQL) that can be built safely from the Web user interface, or entered as freeform SQL by a user. The results are returned in a CSV (Comma Separated Values) format for easy exporting to third party tools and applications that can be used for data mining or user-defined visualization and interpretation. This is the first time that a service is capable of providing access to all cross-project relay data from a single Web resource. Because MaROS contains the data for a variety of missions from the Mars network, which span both NASA and ESA, the software also establishes an access control list (ACL) on each data record in the database repository to enforce user access permissions through a multilayered approach.

Comparison of cap lamp and laser illumination for detecting visual escape cues in smoke

PubMed Central

Lutz, T.J.; Sammarco, J.J.; Srednicki, J.R.; Gallagher, S.

2015-01-01

The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America reports that an underground mine is the most difficult environment to illuminate (Rea, 2000). Researchers at the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Office of Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) are conducting ongoing studies designed to explore different lighting technologies for improving mine safety. Underground miners use different visual cues to escape from a smoke-filled environment. Primary and secondary escapeways are marked with reflective ceiling tags of various colors. Miners also look for mine rail tracks. The main objective of this paper is to compare different lighting types and ceiling tag colors to differentiate what works best in a smoke-filled environment. Various cap lamps (LED and incandescent) and lasers (red, blue, green) were compared to see which options resulted in the longest detection distances for red, green and blue reflective markers and a section of mine rail track. All targets advanced toward the human subject inside of a smoke-filled room to simulate the subject walking in a mine environment. Detection distances were recorded and analyzed to find the best cap lamp, laser color and target color in a smoke environment. Results show that cap lamp, laser color and target color do make a difference in detection distances and are perceived differently based on subject age. Cap lamps were superior to lasers in all circumstances of ceiling tag detection, with the exception of the green laser. The incandescent cap lamp worked best in the simulated smoke compared to the LED cap lamps. The green laser was the best color for detecting the tags and track compared to the red and blue lasers. The green tags were the easiest color to detect on the ceiling. On average, the track was easier for the subjects to detect than the ceiling tags. PMID:26236146

Injury Profiles Associated with Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Tarkwa, Ghana

PubMed Central

Calys-Tagoe, Benedict N. L.; Ovadje, Lauretta; Clarke, Edith; Basu, Niladri; Robins, Thomas

2015-01-01

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is inherently risky, but little is known about mining-associated hazards and injuries despite the tremendous growth worldwide of ASGM and the benefits it offers. The current study aimed to characterize the physical injuries associated with ASGM in Ghana to guide policy formulation. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in the Tarkwa mining district of the Western Region of Ghana in 2014. A total of 404 small-scale miners were recruited and interviewed regarding their occupational injury experiences over the preceding 10 years using a paper-based structured questionnaire. Nearly one-quarter (23.5%) of the miners interviewed reported getting injured over the previous 10 years, and the overall injury rate was calculated to be 5.39 per 100 person years. The rate was significantly higher for women (11.93 per 100 person years) and those with little mining experience (e.g., 25.31 per 100 person years for those with less than one year of work experience). The most injury-prone mining activities were excavation (58.7%) and crushing (23.1%), and over 70% of the injuries were reported to be due to miners being hit by an object. The majority of the injuries (57%) were lacerations, and nearly 70% of the injuries were to the upper or lower limbs. Approximately one-third (34.7%) of the injuries resulted in miners missing more than two weeks of work. One-quarter of the injured workers believed that abnormal work pressure played a role in their injuries, and nearly two-fifths believed that their injuries could have been prevented, with many citing personal protective equipment as a solution. About one-quarter of the employees reported that their employers never seemed to be interested in the welfare or safety of their employees. These findings greatly advance our understanding of occupational hazards and injuries amongst ASGM workers and help identify several intervention points. PMID:26184264

Uranium aqueous speciation in the vicinity of the former uranium mining sites using the diffusive gradients in thin films and ultrafiltration techniques.

PubMed

Drozdzak, Jagoda; Leermakers, Martine; Gao, Yue; Elskens, Marc; Phrommavanh, Vannapha; Descostes, Michael

2016-03-24

The performance of the Diffusive Gradients in Thin films (DGT) technique with Chelex(®)-100, Metsorb™ and Diphonix(®) as binding phases was evaluated in the vicinity of the former uranium mining sites of Chardon and L'Ecarpière (Loire-Atlantique department in western France). This is the first time that the DGT technique with three different binding agents was employed for the aqueous U determination in the context of uranium mining environments. The fractionation and speciation of uranium were investigated using a multi-methodological approach using filtration (0.45 μm, 0.2 μm), ultrafiltration (500 kDa, 100 kDa and 10 kDa) coupled to geochemical speciation modelling (PhreeQC) and the DGT technique. The ultrafiltration data showed that at each sampling point uranium was present mostly in the 10 kDa truly dissolved fraction and the geochemical modelling speciation calculations indicated that U speciation was markedly predominated by CaUO2(CO3)3(2-). In natural waters, no significant difference was observed in terms of U uptake between Chelex(®)-100 and Metsorb™, while similar or inferior U uptake was observed on Diphonix(®) resin. In turn, at mining influenced sampling spots, the U accumulation on DGT-Diphonix(®) was higher than on DGT-Chelex(®)-100 and DGT-Metsorb™, probably because their performance was disturbed by the extreme composition of the mining waters. The use of Diphonix(®) resin leads to a significant advance in the application and development of the DGT technique for determination of U in mining influenced environments. This investigation demonstrated that such multi-technique approach provides a better picture of U speciation and enables to assess more accurately the potentially bioavailable U pool. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Empirical advances with text mining of electronic health records.

PubMed

Delespierre, T; Denormandie, P; Bar-Hen, A; Josseran, L

2017-08-22

Korian is a private group specializing in medical accommodations for elderly and dependent people. A professional data warehouse (DWH) established in 2010 hosts all of the residents' data. Inside this information system (IS), clinical narratives (CNs) were used only by medical staff as a residents' care linking tool. The objective of this study was to show that, through qualitative and quantitative textual analysis of a relatively small physiotherapy and well-defined CN sample, it was possible to build a physiotherapy corpus and, through this process, generate a new body of knowledge by adding relevant information to describe the residents' care and lives. Meaningful words were extracted through Standard Query Language (SQL) with the LIKE function and wildcards to perform pattern matching, followed by text mining and a word cloud using R® packages. Another step involved principal components and multiple correspondence analyses, plus clustering on the same residents' sample as well as on other health data using a health model measuring the residents' care level needs. By combining these techniques, physiotherapy treatments could be characterized by a list of constructed keywords, and the residents' health characteristics were built. Feeding defects or health outlier groups could be detected, physiotherapy residents' data and their health data were matched, and differences in health situations showed qualitative and quantitative differences in physiotherapy narratives. This textual experiment using a textual process in two stages showed that text mining and data mining techniques provide convenient tools to improve residents' health and quality of care by adding new, simple, useable data to the electronic health record (EHR). When used with a normalized physiotherapy problem list, text mining through information extraction (IE), named entity recognition (NER) and data mining (DM) can provide a real advantage to describe health care, adding new medical material and helping to integrate the EHR system into the health staff work environment.

Model for the prediction of subsurface strata movement due to underground mining

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Jianwei; Liu, Fangyuan; Li, Siyuan

2017-12-01

The problem of ground control stability due to large underground mining operations is often associated with large movements and deformations of strata. It is a complicated problem, and can induce severe safety or environmental hazards either at the surface or in strata. Hence, knowing the subsurface strata movement characteristics, and making any subsidence predictions in advance, are desirable for mining engineers to estimate any damage likely to affect the ground surface or subsurface strata. Based on previous research findings, this paper broadly applies a surface subsidence prediction model based on the influence function method to subsurface strata, in order to predict subsurface stratum movement. A step-wise prediction model is proposed, to investigate the movement of underground strata. The model involves a dynamic iteration calculation process to derive the movements and deformations for each stratum layer; modifications to the influence method function are also made for more precise calculations. The critical subsidence parameters, incorporating stratum mechanical properties and the spatial relationship of interest at the mining level, are thoroughly considered, with the purpose of improving the reliability of input parameters. Such research efforts can be very helpful to mining engineers’ understanding of the moving behavior of all strata over underground excavations, and assist in making any damage mitigation plan. In order to check the reliability of the model, two methods are carried out and cross-validation applied. One is to use a borehole TV monitor recording to identify the progress of subsurface stratum bedding and caving in a coal mine, the other is to conduct physical modelling of the subsidence in underground strata. The results of these two methods are used to compare with theoretical results calculated by the proposed mathematical model. The testing results agree well with each other, and the acceptable accuracy and reliability of the proposed prediction model are thus validated.

Injury Profiles Associated with Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in Tarkwa, Ghana.

PubMed

Calys-Tagoe, Benedict N L; Ovadje, Lauretta; Clarke, Edith; Basu, Niladri; Robins, Thomas

2015-07-10

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is inherently risky, but little is known about mining-associated hazards and injuries despite the tremendous growth worldwide of ASGM and the benefits it offers. The current study aimed to characterize the physical injuries associated with ASGM in Ghana to guide policy formulation. A cross-sectional survey was carried out in the Tarkwa mining district of the Western Region of Ghana in 2014. A total of 404 small-scale miners were recruited and interviewed regarding their occupational injury experiences over the preceding 10 years using a paper-based structured questionnaire. Nearly one-quarter (23.5%) of the miners interviewed reported getting injured over the previous 10 years, and the overall injury rate was calculated to be 5.39 per 100 person years. The rate was significantly higher for women (11.93 per 100 person years) and those with little mining experience (e.g., 25.31 per 100 person years for those with less than one year of work experience). The most injury-prone mining activities were excavation (58.7%) and crushing (23.1%), and over 70% of the injuries were reported to be due to miners being hit by an object. The majority of the injuries (57%) were lacerations, and nearly 70% of the injuries were to the upper or lower limbs. Approximately one-third (34.7%) of the injuries resulted in miners missing more than two weeks of work. One-quarter of the injured workers believed that abnormal work pressure played a role in their injuries, and nearly two-fifths believed that their injuries could have been prevented, with many citing personal protective equipment as a solution. About one-quarter of the employees reported that their employers never seemed to be interested in the welfare or safety of their employees. These findings greatly advance our understanding of occupational hazards and injuries amongst ASGM workers and help identify several intervention points.

Comparison of cap lamp and laser illumination for detecting visual escape cues in smoke.

PubMed

Lutz, T J; Sammarco, J J; Srednicki, J R; Gallagher, S

The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America reports that an underground mine is the most difficult environment to illuminate (Rea, 2000). Researchers at the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Office of Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) are conducting ongoing studies designed to explore different lighting technologies for improving mine safety. Underground miners use different visual cues to escape from a smoke-filled environment. Primary and secondary escapeways are marked with reflective ceiling tags of various colors. Miners also look for mine rail tracks. The main objective of this paper is to compare different lighting types and ceiling tag colors to differentiate what works best in a smoke-filled environment. Various cap lamps (LED and incandescent) and lasers (red, blue, green) were compared to see which options resulted in the longest detection distances for red, green and blue reflective markers and a section of mine rail track. All targets advanced toward the human subject inside of a smoke-filled room to simulate the subject walking in a mine environment. Detection distances were recorded and analyzed to find the best cap lamp, laser color and target color in a smoke environment. Results show that cap lamp, laser color and target color do make a difference in detection distances and are perceived differently based on subject age. Cap lamps were superior to lasers in all circumstances of ceiling tag detection, with the exception of the green laser. The incandescent cap lamp worked best in the simulated smoke compared to the LED cap lamps. The green laser was the best color for detecting the tags and track compared to the red and blue lasers. The green tags were the easiest color to detect on the ceiling. On average, the track was easier for the subjects to detect than the ceiling tags.

Text Mining for Neuroscience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tirupattur, Naveen; Lapish, Christopher C.; Mukhopadhyay, Snehasis

2011-06-01

Text mining, sometimes alternately referred to as text analytics, refers to the process of extracting high-quality knowledge from the analysis of textual data. Text mining has wide variety of applications in areas such as biomedical science, news analysis, and homeland security. In this paper, we describe an approach and some relatively small-scale experiments which apply text mining to neuroscience research literature to find novel associations among a diverse set of entities. Neuroscience is a discipline which encompasses an exceptionally wide range of experimental approaches and rapidly growing interest. This combination results in an overwhelmingly large and often diffuse literature which makes a comprehensive synthesis difficult. Understanding the relations or associations among the entities appearing in the literature not only improves the researchers current understanding of recent advances in their field, but also provides an important computational tool to formulate novel hypotheses and thereby assist in scientific discoveries. We describe a methodology to automatically mine the literature and form novel associations through direct analysis of published texts. The method first retrieves a set of documents from databases such as PubMed using a set of relevant domain terms. In the current study these terms yielded a set of documents ranging from 160,909 to 367,214 documents. Each document is then represented in a numerical vector form from which an Association Graph is computed which represents relationships between all pairs of domain terms, based on co-occurrence. Association graphs can then be subjected to various graph theoretic algorithms such as transitive closure and cycle (circuit) detection to derive additional information, and can also be visually presented to a human researcher for understanding. In this paper, we present three relatively small-scale problem-specific case studies to demonstrate that such an approach is very successful in replicating a neuroscience expert's mental model of object-object associations entirely by means of text mining. These preliminary results provide the confidence that this type of text mining based research approach provides an extremely powerful tool to better understand the literature and drive novel discovery for the neuroscience community.

Applied Geochemistry Special Issue on Environmental geochemistry of modern mining

USGS Publications Warehouse

Seal, Robert R.; Nordstrom, D. Kirk

2015-01-01

Environmental geochemistry is an integral part of the mine-life cycle, particularly for modern mining. The critical importance of environmental geochemistry begins with pre-mining baseline characterization and the assessment of environmental risks related to mining, continues through active mining especially in water and waste management practices, and culminates in mine closure. The enhanced significance of environmental geochemistry to modern mining has arisen from an increased knowledge of the impacts that historical and active mining can have on the environment, and from new regulations meant to guard against these impacts. New regulations are commonly motivated by advances in the scientific understanding of the environmental impacts of past mining. The impacts can be physical, chemical, and biological in nature. The physical challenges typically fall within the purview of engineers, whereas the chemical and biological challenges typically require a multidisciplinary array of expertise including geologists, geochemists, hydrologists, microbiologists, and biologists. The modern mine-permitting process throughout most of the world now requires that potential risks be assessed prior to the start of mining. The strategies for this risk assessment include a thorough characterization of pre-mining baseline conditions and the identification of risks specifically related to the manner in which the ore will be mined and processed, how water and waste products will be managed, and what the final configuration of the post-mining landscape will be.In the Fall 2010, the Society of Economic Geologists held a short course in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver, Colorado (USA) to examine the environmental geochemistry of modern mining. The intent was to focus on issues that are pertinent to current and future mines, as opposed to abandoned mines, which have been the focus of numerous previous short courses. The geochemical challenges of current and future mines share similarities with abandoned mines, but differences also exist. Mining and ore processing techniques have changed; the environmental footprint of waste materials has changed; environmental protection has become a more integral part of the mine planning process; and most historical mining was done with limited regard for the environment. The 17 papers in this special issue evolved from the Society of Economic Geologists’ short course.The relevant geochemical processes encompass the source, transport, and fate of contaminants related to the life cycle of a mine. Contaminants include metals and other inorganic species derived from geologic sources such as ore and solid mine waste, and substances brought to the site for ore processing, such as cyanide to leach gold. Factors, such as mine-waste mineralogy, hydrologic setting, mine-drainage chemistry, and microbial activity, that affect the hydrochemical risks from mining are reviewed by Nordstrom et al. In another paper, Nordstrom discusses baseline characterization at mine sites in a regulatory framework, and emphasizes the influence of mineral deposits in producing naturally elevated concentrations of many trace elements in surface water and groundwater. Surface water quality in mineralized watersheds is influenced by a number of processes that act on daily (diel) cycles and can produce dramatic variations in trace element concentrations as described by Gammons et al. Pre-mining baseline characterization studies should strive to capture the magnitude of these diel variations. Desbarats et al., using a case study of mine drainage from a gold mine, illustrate how elements that commonly occur as negatively charged species (anions) in solution, such as arsenic as arsenate, behave in an opposite fashion than most metals, which occur as positively charged species (cations). Significant improvement in the understanding of factors that influence the toxicity of metals to aquatic organisms in surface water has highlighted the importance of aqueous chemistry, particularly dissolved organic carbon, as described by Smith et al. Stream sediment contamination is another important pathway for affecting aquatic organisms, as reviewed by Besser et al. Understanding and predicting environmental consequences from mining begins with knowing the mineralogy and mineral reactivity of the ore, the wastes, and of secondary minerals formed later. Jamieson et al. review the importance of mineralogical studies in mine planning and remediation. A number of types of site-specific studies are needed to identify environmental risks related to individual mines. Lapakko reviews the general framework of mine waste characterization studies that are integral to the mine planning process. Hageman et al. present a comparative study of several static tests commonly used to characterize mine waste.The mining and ore processing practices employed at a specific mine site will vary on the basis of the commodities being targeted, the geology of the deposit, the geometry of the deposit, and the mining and ore processing methods used. Thus, these factors, in addition to the waste management practices used, can result in a variety of end-member mine waste features, each of which has its own set of challenges. Open pit mines and underground mines require waste rock to be removed to access ore. Waste rock presents unique problems because the rock is commonly mineralized at sub-economic grades and has not been processed to remove potentially problematic minerals, such as pyrite. Amos et al. examine the salient aspects of the geochemistry of waste rock. Mill tailings – the waste material after ore minerals have been removed – are a volumetrically important solid waste at many mine sites. Their fine grain size and the options for their management make their behavior in the environment distinct from that of waste rock. Lindsay et al. describe some of these differences through three case-study examples. Subaqueous disposal of tailings is another option described by Moncur et al. Cyanide leaching for gold extraction is a common method throughout the world. Johnson describes environmental aspects of cyanidation. Uranium mining presents unique environmental challenges, particularly since in-situ recovery has seen widespread use. Campbell et al. review the environmental geochemistry of uranium mining and current research on bioremediation. Ore concentrates from many types of metal mining undergo a pyrometallurgical technique known as smelting to extract the metal. Slag is the result of smelting, and it may be an environmental liability or a valuable byproduct, as described by Piatak et al. Finally, the open pits that result from surface mining commonly reach below the water table. At the end of mining, these pits may fill to form lakes that become part of the legacy of the mine. Castendyk et al., in two papers, review theoretical aspects of the environmental limnology of pit lakes. They also describe approaches that have been used to model pit lake water balance, wall-rock contributions to pit lake chemistry, pit lake water quality, and limnological processes, such as vertical mixing, through the use of three case studies.

New Computer Simulation Procedure of Heading Face Mining Process with Transverse Cutting Heads for Roadheader Automation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolipski, Marian; Cheluszka, Piotr; Sobota, Piotr; Remiorz, Eryk

2017-03-01

The key working process carried out by roadheaders is rock mining. For this reason, the mathematical modelling of the mining process is underlying the prediction of a dynamic load on the main components of a roadheader, the prediction of power demand for rock cutting with given properties or the prediction of energy consumption of this process. The theoretical and experimental investigations conducted point out - especially in relation to the technical parameters of roadheaders used these days in underground mining and their operating conditions - that the mathematical models of the process employed to date have many limitations, and in many cases the results obtained using such models deviate largely from the reality. This is due to the fact that certain factors strongly influencing cutting process progress have not been considered at the modelling stage, or have been approached in an oversimplified fashion. The article presents a new model of a rock cutting process using conical picks of cutting heads of boom-type roadheaders. An important novelty with respect to the models applied to date is, firstly, that the actual shape of cuts has been modelled with such shape resulting from the geometry of the currently used conical picks, and, secondly, variations in the depth of cuts in the cutting path of individual picks have been considered with such variations resulting from the picks' kinematics during the advancement of transverse cutting heads parallel to the floor surface. The work presents examples of simulation results for mining with a roadheader's transverse head equipped with 80 conical picks and compares them with the outcomes obtained using the existing model.

Comparison of MERV 16 and HEPA filters for cab filtration of underground mining equipment.

PubMed

Cecala, A B; Organiscak, J A; Noll, J D; Zimmer, J A

2016-08-01

Significant strides have been made in optimizing the design of filtration and pressurization systems used on the enclosed cabs of mobile mining equipment to reduce respirable dust and provide the best air quality to the equipment operators. Considering all of the advances made in this area, one aspect that still needed to be evaluated was a comparison of the efficiencies of the different filters used in these systems. As high-efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filters provide the highest filtering efficiency, the general assumption would be that they would also provide the greatest level of protection to workers. Researchers for the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) speculated, based upon a previous laboratory study, that filters with minimum efficiency reporting value, or MERV rating, of 16 may be a more appropriate choice than HEPA filters in most cases for the mining industry. A study was therefore performed comparing HEPA and MERV 16 filters on two kinds of underground limestone mining equipment, a roof bolter and a face drill, to evaluate this theory. Testing showed that, at the 95-percent confidence level, there was no statistical difference between the efficiencies of the two types of filters on the two kinds of mining equipment. As the MERV 16 filters were less restrictive, provided greater airflow and cab pressurization, cost less and required less-frequent replacement than the HEPA filters, the MERV 16 filters were concluded to be the optimal choice for both the roof bolter and the face drill in this comparative-analysis case study. Another key finding of this study is the substantial improvement in the effectiveness of filtration and pressurization systems when using a final filter design.

Comparison of MERV 16 and HEPA filters for cab filtration of underground mining equipment

PubMed Central

Cecala, A.B.; Organiscak, J.A.; Noll, J.D.; Zimmer, J.A.

2016-01-01

Significant strides have been made in optimizing the design of filtration and pressurization systems used on the enclosed cabs of mobile mining equipment to reduce respirable dust and provide the best air quality to the equipment operators. Considering all of the advances made in this area, one aspect that still needed to be evaluated was a comparison of the efficiencies of the different filters used in these systems. As high-efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filters provide the highest filtering efficiency, the general assumption would be that they would also provide the greatest level of protection to workers. Researchers for the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) speculated, based upon a previous laboratory study, that filters with minimum efficiency reporting value, or MERV rating, of 16 may be a more appropriate choice than HEPA filters in most cases for the mining industry. A study was therefore performed comparing HEPA and MERV 16 filters on two kinds of underground limestone mining equipment, a roof bolter and a face drill, to evaluate this theory. Testing showed that, at the 95-percent confidence level, there was no statistical difference between the efficiencies of the two types of filters on the two kinds of mining equipment. As the MERV 16 filters were less restrictive, provided greater airflow and cab pressurization, cost less and required less-frequent replacement than the HEPA filters, the MERV 16 filters were concluded to be the optimal choice for both the roof bolter and the face drill in this comparative-analysis case study. Another key finding of this study is the substantial improvement in the effectiveness of filtration and pressurization systems when using a final filter design. PMID:27524838

Web-video-mining-supported workflow modeling for laparoscopic surgeries.

PubMed

Liu, Rui; Zhang, Xiaoli; Zhang, Hao

2016-11-01

As quality assurance is of strong concern in advanced surgeries, intelligent surgical systems are expected to have knowledge such as the knowledge of the surgical workflow model (SWM) to support their intuitive cooperation with surgeons. For generating a robust and reliable SWM, a large amount of training data is required. However, training data collected by physically recording surgery operations is often limited and data collection is time-consuming and labor-intensive, severely influencing knowledge scalability of the surgical systems. The objective of this research is to solve the knowledge scalability problem in surgical workflow modeling with a low cost and labor efficient way. A novel web-video-mining-supported surgical workflow modeling (webSWM) method is developed. A novel video quality analysis method based on topic analysis and sentiment analysis techniques is developed to select high-quality videos from abundant and noisy web videos. A statistical learning method is then used to build the workflow model based on the selected videos. To test the effectiveness of the webSWM method, 250 web videos were mined to generate a surgical workflow for the robotic cholecystectomy surgery. The generated workflow was evaluated by 4 web-retrieved videos and 4 operation-room-recorded videos, respectively. The evaluation results (video selection consistency n-index ≥0.60; surgical workflow matching degree ≥0.84) proved the effectiveness of the webSWM method in generating robust and reliable SWM knowledge by mining web videos. With the webSWM method, abundant web videos were selected and a reliable SWM was modeled in a short time with low labor cost. Satisfied performances in mining web videos and learning surgery-related knowledge show that the webSWM method is promising in scaling knowledge for intelligent surgical systems. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Planetary science and exploration in the deep subsurface: results from the MINAR Program, Boulby Mine, UK

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Payler, Samuel J.; Biddle, Jennifer F.; Coates, Andrew J.; Cousins, Claire R.; Cross, Rachel E.; Cullen, David C.; Downs, Michael T.; Direito, Susana O. L.; Edwards, Thomas; Gray, Amber L.; Genis, Jac; Gunn, Matthew; Hansford, Graeme M.; Harkness, Patrick; Holt, John; Josset, Jean-Luc; Li, Xuan; Lees, David S.; Lim, Darlene S. S.; McHugh, Melissa; McLuckie, David; Meehan, Emma; Paling, Sean M.; Souchon, Audrey; Yeoman, Louise; Cockell, Charles S.

2017-04-01

The subsurface exploration of other planetary bodies can be used to unravel their geological history and assess their habitability. On Mars in particular, present-day habitable conditions may be restricted to the subsurface. Using a deep subsurface mine, we carried out a program of extraterrestrial analog research - MINe Analog Research (MINAR). MINAR aims to carry out the scientific study of the deep subsurface and test instrumentation designed for planetary surface exploration by investigating deep subsurface geology, whilst establishing the potential this technology has to be transferred into the mining industry. An integrated multi-instrument suite was used to investigate samples of representative evaporite minerals from a subsurface Permian evaporite sequence, in particular to assess mineral and elemental variations which provide small-scale regions of enhanced habitability. The instruments used were the Panoramic Camera emulator, Close-Up Imager, Raman spectrometer, Small Planetary Linear Impulse Tool, Ultrasonic drill and handheld X-ray diffraction (XRD). We present science results from the analog research and show that these instruments can be used to investigate in situ the geological context and mineralogical variations of a deep subsurface environment, and thus habitability, from millimetre to metre scales. We also show that these instruments are complementary. For example, the identification of primary evaporite minerals such as NaCl and KCl, which are difficult to detect by portable Raman spectrometers, can be accomplished with XRD. By contrast, Raman is highly effective at locating and detecting mineral inclusions in primary evaporite minerals. MINAR demonstrates the effective use of a deep subsurface environment for planetary instrument development, understanding the habitability of extreme deep subsurface environments on Earth and other planetary bodies, and advancing the use of space technology in economic mining.

Effectiveness evaluation of existing noise controls in a deep shaft underground mine.

PubMed

Lutz, Eric A; Reed, Rustin J; Turner, Dylan; Littau, Sally R; Lee, Vivien; Hu, Chengcheng

2015-01-01

Noise exposures and hearing loss in the mining industry continue to be a major problem, despite advances in noise control technologies. This study evaluated the effectiveness of engineering, administrative, and personal noise controls using both traditional and in-ear dosimetry by job task, work shift, and five types of earplug. The noise exposures of 22 miners performing deep shaft-sinking tasks were evaluated during 56 rotating shifts in an underground mine. Miners were earplug-insertion trained, earplug fit-tested, and monitored utilizing traditional and in-ear dosimetry. The mean TWA8 noise exposure via traditional dosimetry was 90.1 ± 8.2 dBA, while the mean in-ear TWA8 was 79.6 ± 13.8 dBA. The latter was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) personal exposure limit (PEL) of 90 dBA. Dosimetry mean TWA8 noise exposures for bench blowing (103.5 ± 0.9 dBA), jumbo drill operation (103.0 ± 0.8 dBA), and mucking tasks (99.6 ± 4.7 dBA) were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than other tasks. For bench blowing, cable pulling, grinding, and jumbo drill operation tasks, the mean in-ear TWA8 was greater than 85 dBA. Those working swing shift had a significantly higher (p < 0.001) mean TWA8 noise exposure (95.4 ± 7.3 dBA) than those working day shift. For percent difference between traditional vs. in-ear dosimetry, there was no significant difference among types of earplug used. Reflective of occupational hearing loss rate trends across the mining industry, this study found that, despite existing engineering and administrative controls, noise exposure levels exceeded regulatory limits, while the addition of personal hearing protection limited excessive exposures.

Preliminary evaluation of solution-mining intrusion into a salt-dome repository

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

1981-06-01

This report is the product of the work of an ONWI task force to evaluate inadvertant human intrusion into a salt dome repository by solution mining. It summarizes the work in the following areas: a general review of the levels of defense that could reduce both the likelihood and potential consequences of human intrusion into a salt dome repository; evaluation of a hypothetical intrusion scenario and its consequences; recommendation for further studies. The conclusions of this task force report can be summarized as follows: (1) it is not possible at present to establish with certainty that solution mining is crediblemore » as a human-intrusion event. The likelihood of such an intrusion will depend on the effectiveness of the preventive measures; (2) an example analysis based on the realistic approach is presented in this report; it concluded that the radiological consequences are strongly dependent upon the mode of radionuclide release from the waste form, time after emplacement, package design, impurities in the host salt, the amount of a repository intercepted, the solution mining cavity form, the length of time over which solution mining occurs, the proportion of contaminated salt source for human consumption compared to other sources, and the method of salt purification for culinary purposes; (3) worst case scenarios done by other studies suggest considerable potential for exposures to man while preliminary evaluations of more realistic cases suggest significantly reduced potential consequences. Mathematical model applications to process systems, guided by more advanced assumptions about human intrusion into geomedia, will shed more light on the potential for concerns and the degree to which mitigative measures will be required.« less

LSST Astroinformatics And Astrostatistics: Data-oriented Astronomical Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borne, Kirk D.; Stassun, K.; Brunner, R. J.; Djorgovski, S. G.; Graham, M.; Hakkila, J.; Mahabal, A.; Paegert, M.; Pesenson, M.; Ptak, A.; Scargle, J.; Informatics, LSST; Statistics Team

2011-01-01

The LSST Informatics and Statistics Science Collaboration (ISSC) focuses on research and scientific discovery challenges posed by the very large and complex data collection that LSST will generate. Application areas include astroinformatics, machine learning, data mining, astrostatistics, visualization, scientific data semantics, time series analysis, and advanced signal processing. Research problems to be addressed with these methodologies include transient event characterization and classification, rare class discovery, correlation mining, outlier/anomaly/surprise detection, improved estimators (e.g., for photometric redshift or early onset supernova classification), exploration of highly dimensional (multivariate) data catalogs, and more. We present sample science results from these data-oriented approaches to large-data astronomical research. We present results from LSST ISSC team members, including the EB (Eclipsing Binary) Factory, the environmental variations in the fundamental plane of elliptical galaxies, and outlier detection in multivariate catalogs.

DebugIT for patient safety - improving the treatment with antibiotics through multimedia data mining of heterogeneous clinical data.

PubMed

Lovis, Christian; Colaert, Dirk; Stroetmann, Veli N

2008-01-01

The concepts and architecture underlying a large-scale integrating project funded within the 7th EU Framework Programme (FP7) are discussed. The main objective of the project is to build a tool that will have a significant impact for the monitoring and the control of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistances in Europe; This will be realized by building a technical and semantic infrastructure able to share heterogeneous clinical data sets from different hospitals in different countries, with different languages and legislations; to analyze large amounts of this clinical data with advanced multimedia data mining and finally apply the obtained knowledge for clinical decisions and outcome monitoring. There are numerous challenges in this project at all levels, technical, semantical, legal and ethical that will have to be addressed.

The plight of the beaches of Greece

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ewing, L.; Foteinis, S.; Kalligeris, N.; Palaiologou, A.; Synolakis, C. E.

2008-12-01

The coastlines of the Greece are rapidly retreating at a rate that has increased substantially in the past decade. We describe here specific examples of rapid erosion and we speculate as to the causes. In some instances, erosion is advancing at a rate of 1m/year. As in other parts of the Mediterranean, the causes are anthropogenic and include sand mining from the beaches and rivers, poor design of coastal structures that create reflection patterns that focus waves on vulnerable areas, removal of sand dunes to build roads, and coastal construction too close to shoreline. The underlying problem is the complete lack of any semblance of coastal zone management in Greece and antiquated legislation. We conclude that unless urgent salvage measures to protect the beaches and end sand mining and dune removal, several beaches will disappear within the next decade.

[An Introduction to Methods for Evaluating Health Care Technology].

PubMed

Lee, Ting-Ting

2015-06-01

The rapid and continual advance of healthcare technology makes ensuring that this technology is used effectively to achieve its original goals a critical issue. This paper presents three methods that may be applied by healthcare professionals in the evaluation of healthcare technology. These methods include: the perception/experiences of users, user work-pattern changes, and chart review or data mining. The first method includes two categories: using interviews to explore the user experience and using theory-based questionnaire surveys. The second method applies work sampling to observe the work pattern changes of users. The last method conducts chart reviews or data mining to analyze the designated variables. In conclusion, while evaluative feedback may be used to improve the design and development of healthcare technology applications, the informatics competency and informatics literacy of users may be further explored in future research.

Effective heart disease prediction system using data mining techniques.

PubMed

Singh, Poornima; Singh, Sanjay; Pandi-Jain, Gayatri S

2018-01-01

The health care industries collect huge amounts of data that contain some hidden information, which is useful for making effective decisions. For providing appropriate results and making effective decisions on data, some advanced data mining techniques are used. In this study, an effective heart disease prediction system (EHDPS) is developed using neural network for predicting the risk level of heart disease. The system uses 15 medical parameters such as age, sex, blood pressure, cholesterol, and obesity for prediction. The EHDPS predicts the likelihood of patients getting heart disease. It enables significant knowledge, eg, relationships between medical factors related to heart disease and patterns, to be established. We have employed the multilayer perceptron neural network with backpropagation as the training algorithm. The obtained results have illustrated that the designed diagnostic system can effectively predict the risk level of heart diseases.

PARPs database: A LIMS systems for protein-protein interaction data mining or laboratory information management system

PubMed Central

Droit, Arnaud; Hunter, Joanna M; Rouleau, Michèle; Ethier, Chantal; Picard-Cloutier, Aude; Bourgais, David; Poirier, Guy G

2007-01-01

Background In the "post-genome" era, mass spectrometry (MS) has become an important method for the analysis of proteins and the rapid advancement of this technique, in combination with other proteomics methods, results in an increasing amount of proteome data. This data must be archived and analysed using specialized bioinformatics tools. Description We herein describe "PARPs database," a data analysis and management pipeline for liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) proteomics. PARPs database is a web-based tool whose features include experiment annotation, protein database searching, protein sequence management, as well as data-mining of the peptides and proteins identified. Conclusion Using this pipeline, we have successfully identified several interactions of biological significance between PARP-1 and other proteins, namely RFC-1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. PMID:18093328

Longwall top coal caving (LTCC) mining technologies with roof softening by hydraulic fracturing method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klishin, V.; Nikitenko, S.; Opruk, G.

2018-05-01

The paper discusses advanced top coal caving technologies for thick coal seams and addresses some issues of incomplete coal extraction, which can result in the environmental damage, landscape change, air and water pollution and endogenous fires. The authors put forward a fundamentally new, having no equivalent and ecology-friendly method to difficult-to-cave roof coal – directional hydraulic fracturing and nonexplosive disintegration.

Stress–strain state of adjacent rock mass under slice mining of steeply dipping ore bodies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baryshnikov, VD; Gakhova, LN

2018-03-01

Under analysis is the stress state of rock mass surrounding stopes in the initial cutting layer displaced in plan relative to the above-lying extracted layer in the overcut rock mass. The authors determine the boundaries of the post-limiting deformation zones during stoping advance using the Mohr–Coulomb criterion. The sequence of stoping to ensure better support conditions is proposed.

Novel E-Field Sensor for Projectile Detection

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-22

aircrafts. They used an array of three plate induction sensors and a simple algorithm to deter mine the direction of the planes [9]. In more recent...publications [10, 11, 12] researchers present increasingly more advanced algorithms and sensors. The techniques developed thus far have not received...the electric field pulse is being detected by a group of sensors in array with known distances between the sensors, so triangulation algorithms could

Alternate Reality Teaching: OurSpace

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-05-31

as opposed to MINE . These elements, taken together, create an entertainment spectrum for gaming that evolves in sophistication as students advance...on this page is subject to restrictions on cover and notice page. Intific Inc. 17 colliding with an asteroid . Students manipulate different...unit of success throughout the game. RoboBall now begins with a "slide show" that sets up the game play conceits. Players watch as an asteroid swarm

Functional evaluation of out-of-the-box text-mining tools for data-mining tasks.

PubMed

Jung, Kenneth; LePendu, Paea; Iyer, Srinivasan; Bauer-Mehren, Anna; Percha, Bethany; Shah, Nigam H

2015-01-01

The trade-off between the speed and simplicity of dictionary-based term recognition and the richer linguistic information provided by more advanced natural language processing (NLP) is an area of active discussion in clinical informatics. In this paper, we quantify this trade-off among text processing systems that make different trade-offs between speed and linguistic understanding. We tested both types of systems in three clinical research tasks: phase IV safety profiling of a drug, learning adverse drug-drug interactions, and learning used-to-treat relationships between drugs and indications. We first benchmarked the accuracy of the NCBO Annotator and REVEAL in a manually annotated, publically available dataset from the 2008 i2b2 Obesity Challenge. We then applied the NCBO Annotator and REVEAL to 9 million clinical notes from the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment (STRIDE) and used the resulting data for three research tasks. There is no significant difference between using the NCBO Annotator and REVEAL in the results of the three research tasks when using large datasets. In one subtask, REVEAL achieved higher sensitivity with smaller datasets. For a variety of tasks, employing simple term recognition methods instead of advanced NLP methods results in little or no impact on accuracy when using large datasets. Simpler dictionary-based methods have the advantage of scaling well to very large datasets. Promoting the use of simple, dictionary-based methods for population level analyses can advance adoption of NLP in practice. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Finding a Needle in the Haystack: Identification of Functionally Important Minority Phases in an Operating Battery

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Kai; Ren, Fang; Wang, Xuelong

The in-depth understanding of the minority phases’ roles in functional materials, e.g., batteries, is critical for optimizing the system performance and the operational efficiency. Although the visualization of battery electrode under operating conditions has been demonstrated, the development of advanced data-mining approaches is still needed in order to identify minority phases and to understand their functionalities. The present study uses nanoscale X-ray spectromicroscopy to study a functional LiCoO 2/Li battery pouch cell. The data-mining approaches developed herein were used to search through over 10 million X-ray absorption spectra that cover more than 100 active cathode particles. Two particles with unanticipatedmore » chemical fingerprints were identified and further analyzed, providing direct evidence and valuable insight into the undesired side reactions involving the cation dissolution and precipitation as well as the local overlithiation-caused subparticle domain deactivation. As a result, the data-mining approach described in this work is widely applicable to many other structurally complex and chemically heterogeneous systems, in which the secondary/minority phases could critically affect the overall performance of the system, well beyond battery research.« less

Synergism of He-3 acquisition with lunar base evolution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crabb, T. M.; Jacobs, M. K.

1992-01-01

Researchers have discovered that the lunar surface contains a valuable fusion fuel element that is relatively scarce on Earth. This element, He-3, originates from the solar wind that has bombarded the surface of the Moon over geologic time. Mining operations to recover this resource would allow the by-product acquisition of hydrogen, water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and nitrogen from the lunar surface with relatively minimal additional resource investment when compared to the costs to supply these resources from Earth. Two configurations for the He-3 mining system are discussed, and the impacts of these mining operations on a projected lunar base scenario are assessed. We conclude that the acquisition of He-3 is feasible with minimal advances in current state-of-the-art technologies and could support a terrestrial nuclear fusion power economy with the lowest hazard risk of any nuclear reaction known. Also, the availability of the by-products of He-3 acquisition from the Moon could significantly reduce the operational requirements of a lunar base and increase the commercialization potential of the base through consumable resupply of the lunar base itself, other components of the space infrastructure, and other space missions.

@Note: a workbench for biomedical text mining.

PubMed

Lourenço, Anália; Carreira, Rafael; Carneiro, Sónia; Maia, Paulo; Glez-Peña, Daniel; Fdez-Riverola, Florentino; Ferreira, Eugénio C; Rocha, Isabel; Rocha, Miguel

2009-08-01

Biomedical Text Mining (BioTM) is providing valuable approaches to the automated curation of scientific literature. However, most efforts have addressed the benchmarking of new algorithms rather than user operational needs. Bridging the gap between BioTM researchers and biologists' needs is crucial to solve real-world problems and promote further research. We present @Note, a platform for BioTM that aims at the effective translation of the advances between three distinct classes of users: biologists, text miners and software developers. Its main functional contributions are the ability to process abstracts and full-texts; an information retrieval module enabling PubMed search and journal crawling; a pre-processing module with PDF-to-text conversion, tokenisation and stopword removal; a semantic annotation schema; a lexicon-based annotator; a user-friendly annotation view that allows to correct annotations and a Text Mining Module supporting dataset preparation and algorithm evaluation. @Note improves the interoperability, modularity and flexibility when integrating in-home and open-source third-party components. Its component-based architecture allows the rapid development of new applications, emphasizing the principles of transparency and simplicity of use. Although it is still on-going, it has already allowed the development of applications that are currently being used.

Dynamic properties of hot-wire anemometric measurement circuits in the aspect of measurements in mine conditions / Właściwości dynamiczne termoanemometrycznych układów pomiarowych w aspekcie pomiarów w warunkach kopalnianych

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jamróz, Paweł; Ligęza, Paweł; Socha, Katarzyna

2012-12-01

The use of measurement apparatus under conditions which differ significantly from those under which the apparatus was adjusted carries the risk of altering the previously determined measurement characteristics. This is of special concern in the case of apparatus which is sensitive to external measurement conditions. Advanced measurement systems are equipped with algorithms which allow the negative effect of unstable environmental conditions on their static characteristics to be compensated for. Meanwhile, the problem of altered dynamic properties of such systems is often neglected. This paper presents a model study in which the effect of variable operational conditions on dynamic response of hot-wire anemometric measurement system in the case of simulated mine flows was investigated. A mathematical model of measurement system able to compensate the negative effect of changes in flow velocity and configuration of measurement apparatus itself on its dynamic properties was developed and investigated. Based on conducted experiments, we have developed an automatic regulation algorithm enabling the transmission band of measurement apparatus to be optimized for measurement conditions prevailing in mine environment.

Advancing Science through Mining Libraries, Ontologies, and Communities*

PubMed Central

Evans, James A.; Rzhetsky, Andrey

2011-01-01

Life scientists today cannot hope to read everything relevant to their research. Emerging text-mining tools can help by identifying topics and distilling statements from books and articles with increased accuracy. Researchers often organize these statements into ontologies, consistent systems of reality claims. Like scientific thinking and interchange, however, text-mined information (even when accurately captured) is complex, redundant, sometimes incoherent, and often contradictory: it is rooted in a mixture of only partially consistent ontologies. We review work that models scientific reason and suggest how computational reasoning across ontologies and the broader distribution of textual statements can assess the certainty of statements and the process by which statements become certain. With the emergence of digitized data regarding networks of scientific authorship, institutions, and resources, we explore the possibility of accounting for social dependences and cultural biases in reasoning models. Computational reasoning is starting to fill out ontologies and flag internal inconsistencies in several areas of bioscience. In the not too distant future, scientists may be able to use statements and rich models of the processes that produced them to identify underexplored areas, resurrect forgotten findings and ideas, deconvolute the spaghetti of underlying ontologies, and synthesize novel knowledge and hypotheses. PMID:21566119

Finding a Needle in the Haystack: Identification of Functionally Important Minority Phases in an Operating Battery

DOE PAGES

Zhang, Kai; Ren, Fang; Wang, Xuelong; ...

2017-11-08

The in-depth understanding of the minority phases’ roles in functional materials, e.g., batteries, is critical for optimizing the system performance and the operational efficiency. Although the visualization of battery electrode under operating conditions has been demonstrated, the development of advanced data-mining approaches is still needed in order to identify minority phases and to understand their functionalities. The present study uses nanoscale X-ray spectromicroscopy to study a functional LiCoO 2/Li battery pouch cell. The data-mining approaches developed herein were used to search through over 10 million X-ray absorption spectra that cover more than 100 active cathode particles. Two particles with unanticipatedmore » chemical fingerprints were identified and further analyzed, providing direct evidence and valuable insight into the undesired side reactions involving the cation dissolution and precipitation as well as the local overlithiation-caused subparticle domain deactivation. As a result, the data-mining approach described in this work is widely applicable to many other structurally complex and chemically heterogeneous systems, in which the secondary/minority phases could critically affect the overall performance of the system, well beyond battery research.« less

Novel Flexible Wearable Sensor Materials and Signal Processing for Vital Sign and Human Activity Monitoring.

PubMed

Servati, Amir; Zou, Liang; Wang, Z Jane; Ko, Frank; Servati, Peyman

2017-07-13

Advances in flexible electronic materials and smart textile, along with broad availability of smart phones, cloud and wireless systems have empowered the wearable technologies for significant impact on future of digital and personalized healthcare as well as consumer electronics. However, challenges related to lack of accuracy, reliability, high power consumption, rigid or bulky form factor and difficulty in interpretation of data have limited their wide-scale application in these potential areas. As an important solution to these challenges, we present latest advances in novel flexible electronic materials and sensors that enable comfortable and conformable body interaction and potential for invisible integration within daily apparel. Advances in novel flexible materials and sensors are described for wearable monitoring of human vital signs including, body temperature, respiratory rate and heart rate, muscle movements and activity. We then present advances in signal processing focusing on motion and noise artifact removal, data mining and aspects of sensor fusion relevant to future clinical applications of wearable technology.

Novel Flexible Wearable Sensor Materials and Signal Processing for Vital Sign and Human Activity Monitoring

PubMed Central

Servati, Amir; Wang, Z. Jane; Ko, Frank; Servati, Peyman

2017-01-01

Advances in flexible electronic materials and smart textile, along with broad availability of smart phones, cloud and wireless systems have empowered the wearable technologies for significant impact on future of digital and personalized healthcare as well as consumer electronics. However, challenges related to lack of accuracy, reliability, high power consumption, rigid or bulky form factor and difficulty in interpretation of data have limited their wide-scale application in these potential areas. As an important solution to these challenges, we present latest advances in novel flexible electronic materials and sensors that enable comfortable and conformable body interaction and potential for invisible integration within daily apparel. Advances in novel flexible materials and sensors are described for wearable monitoring of human vital signs including, body temperature, respiratory rate and heart rate, muscle movements and activity. We then present advances in signal processing focusing on motion and noise artifact removal, data mining and aspects of sensor fusion relevant to future clinical applications of wearable technology. PMID:28703744

Nanotechnology and clean energy: sustainable utilization and supply of critical materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fromer, Neil A.; Diallo, Mamadou S.

2013-11-01

Advances in nanoscale science and engineering suggest that many of the current problems involving the sustainable utilization and supply of critical materials in clean and renewable energy technologies could be addressed using (i) nanostructured materials with enhanced electronic, optical, magnetic and catalytic properties and (ii) nanotechnology-based separation materials and systems that can recover critical materials from non-traditional sources including mine tailings, industrial wastewater and electronic wastes with minimum environmental impact. This article discusses the utilization of nanotechnology to improve or achieve materials sustainability for energy generation, conversion and storage. We highlight recent advances and discuss opportunities of utilizing nanotechnology to address materials sustainability for clean and renewable energy technologies.

Resource targets for advanced underground coal extraction systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoag, J. H.; Whipple, D. W.; Habib-Agahi, H.; Lavin, M. L.

1982-01-01

Resource targets appropriate for federal sponsorship of research and development of advanced underground coal mining systems are identified. A comprehensive examination of conventional and unconventional coals with particular attention to exceptionally thin and thick seams, steeply dipping beds, and multiple seam geometry was made. The results indicate that the resource of primary importance is flat lying bituminous coal of moderate thickness, under moderate cover, and located within the lower 48 states. Resources of secondary importance are the flat lying multiple seams and thin seams (especially those in Appalachia). Steeply dipping coals, abandoned pillars, and exceptionally thick western coals may be important in some regions of subregions, but the limited tonnage available places them in a position of tertiary importance.

Big data mining powers fungal research: recent advances in fission yeast systems biology approaches.

PubMed

Wang, Zhe

2017-06-01

Biology research has entered into big data era. Systems biology approaches therefore become the powerful tools to obtain the whole landscape of how cell separate, grow, and resist the stresses. Fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is wonderful unicellular eukaryote model, especially studying its division and metabolism can facilitate to understanding the molecular mechanism of cancer and discovering anticancer agents. In this perspective, we discuss the recent advanced fission yeast systems biology tools, mainly focus on metabolomics profiling and metabolic modeling, protein-protein interactome and genetic interaction network, DNA sequencing and applications, and high-throughput phenotypic screening. We therefore hope this review can be useful for interested fungal researchers as well as bioformaticians.

Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR) Phase 2 and Smart Autonomous Sand-Swimming Excavator

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandy, Michael

2015-01-01

The Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot (RASSOR) Phase 2 is an excavation robot for mining regolith on a planet like Mars. The robot is programmed using the Robotic Operating System (ROS) and it also uses a physical simulation program called Gazebo. This internship focused on various functions of the program in order to make it a more professional and efficient robot. During the internship another project called the Smart Autonomous Sand-Swimming Excavator was worked on. This is a robot that is designed to dig through sand and extract sample material. The intern worked on programming the Sand-Swimming robot, and designing the electrical system to power and control the robot.

Developmental GPR mine detection technology known as Balanced Bridge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sherbondy, Kelly D.; Lang, David A.

1995-06-01

The Balanced Bridge (BB) detection concept was developed just after the end of WWII. It has been researched for many years since then but it has never truly overcome the following inherent problems: sensitivity to antenna height and tilt variations, detectability of flush mines, sensitivity to soil moisture content, high false alarms, and most importantly, the inability to detect small anti-personnel (AP) mines. Even with all of these shortcomings, the BB sensor technology is still one of the most promising electrmagnetic mine detection systems. This paper will address a new BB detector and its preliminary field performance compared to earlier BB research. The new BB detector has superior capabilities compared to earlier BB efforts involving single frequency or single octave excitation because the new BB operates over a multi-octave bandwidth. The new BB detector also incorporates audio and visual presentations of digitally processed signals where earlier versions only had an audible announcement derived from a simple thresholding algorithm. New BB designs addressing previous BB deficiencies will also be discussed. Design changes include using a broadband printed circuit board antenna, RF transmit and receive components, and a digital signal processor. This new BB detector will be tested at an Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) evaluation in FY95. The ATD exit criteria will be discussed and compared to recent field testing of the new BB detector. Preliminary results with the new BB system have demonstrated encouraging results which will be incorporated in this paper.

Do plant-based amendments improve soil physiochemical and microbiological properties and plant growth in dryland ecosystems?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kneller, Tayla; Harris, Richard; Muñoz-Rojas, Miriam

2017-04-01

Background Land intensive practices including mining have contributed to the degradation of landscapes globally. Current challenges in post-mine restoration revolve around the use of substrates poor in organic materials (e.g. overburden and waste rock) and lack of original topsoil which may result in poor seedling recruitment and in later stages in soil nutrient deficiency, metal toxicity, decreased microbial activity and high salinity (Bateman et al., 2016; Muñoz-Rojas et al., 2016). Despite continuous efforts and advances we have not proportionally advanced our capability to successfully restore these landscapes following mining. Recent attempts to improve plant establishment in arid zone restoration programs have included the application of plant based amendments to soil profiles. This approach usually aims to accelerate soil reconstruction via improvement of soil aggregate stability and increase of soil organic carbon, and water holding capacity. Whilst a significant amount of recent research has focused on the application of such amendments, studies on the potential application of plant based materials to recover soil functionality and re-establish plant communities in post-mined landscapes in arid regions are limited. Here we will discuss our work investigating the application of a plant based amendment on soil substrates commonly used in post mining restoration in the Pilbara region, Western Australia. Methodology The study was conducted in a glasshouse facility where environmental conditions were continuously monitored. Using two growth materials (topsoil and waste rock) and a plant based amendment (dry biomass of the most common grass in the Pilbara, Triodia wiseana) five different treatments were tested. Treatments consisted of control soil treatments (topsoil, waste and a mixture of the former soil types (mixture)) and two amended soil treatments (waste amended and mixture amended). Additionally, three different vegetation communities were studies, these include Triodia wiseana, Triodia wiseana and Acacia ancistrocarpa and a combination of the former species with Grevillia wickhamii. Pots were filled with soil materials and allocated plant community treatments. Plant growth and morphology, soil physiochemical (pH, electrical conductivity, N and organic C) and biological (microbial activity) properties were measured after 12 months to assess the suitability of the amendments. Results Our results have demonstrated a general decline in plant survival over the duration of 12 months, where pots with amended mine soils displaying the lowest survival rates compared to the topsoil. However, soil microbial activity of pots containing amendments was greater than those without, although there was no significant difference in microbial activity across vegetation communities (p < 0.05). References Bateman A, Lewandrowski W, Stevens JC, Muñoz-Rojas M. 2016. Ecophysiological Indicators to Assess Drought Responses of Arid Zone Native Seedlings in Reconstructed Soils. Land Degradation & Development. published online. DOI:10.1002/ldr.2660 Muñoz-Rojas M, Erickson TE, Dixon KW, Merritt DJ. 2016. Soil quality indicators to assess functionality of restored soils in degraded semiarid ecosystems. Restoration Ecology 24, 43-52. DOI: 10.1111/rec.12368

CESAR research in intelligent machines

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Weisbin, C.R.

1986-01-01

The Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) was established in 1983 as a national center for multidisciplinary, long-range research and development in machine intelligence and advanced control theory for energy-related applications. Intelligent machines of interest here are artificially created operational systems that are capable of autonomous decision making and action. The initial emphasis for research is remote operations, with specific application to dexterous manipulation in unstructured dangerous environments where explosives, toxic chemicals, or radioactivity may be present, or in other environments with significant risk such as coal mining or oceanographic missions. Potential benefits include reduced risk to man inmore » hazardous situations, machine replication of scarce expertise, minimization of human error due to fear or fatigue, and enhanced capability using high resolution sensors and powerful computers. A CESAR goal is to explore the interface between the advanced teleoperation capability of today, and the autonomous machines of the future.« less

Principles of adoption of the successful environmental practices used in developed countries into mining industry in developing countries.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masaitis, Alexandra

2013-04-01

The successful implementation of the environmental practices in the mining industry is of a paramount importance, as it not only prevents both local and trans-border pollution but also guarantees clean and healthy environment for the people regardless of their place of habitation. It is especially important to encourage the progress of the environmental practices implementation in developing countries because such countries have resource-oriented economy based on exploitation of nonrenewable resources. Poor environmental practices in developing countries will lead to local environmental crises that could eventually spill into surrounding countries including the most economically advanced. This abstract is a summary of a two-year research project attempted (1) to determine deficiencies of the mining sector ecological practices in developing countries and (2) to suggest substitute practices from developed countries that could be adapted to the developing countries reality. The following research methods were used: 1. The method of the system analysis, where the system is an interaction of the sets of environmental practices with the global mining sector; 2. The comparative method of inquiry, where the comparison was made between environmental protection practices as implemented in the US (developed country) and the developing countries such as RF, Mongolia mining sectors; 3. Quantitative date analysis, where date was collected from "The collection of statistic data", Russian Geographic Society Annual reports, the US EPA open reports, and the USGS Reports; The following results were obtained: Identified the systemic crisis of the ecological environmental policies and practices in the mining sector in developing countries based on the exploitation of nonrenewable resources, absence of the ecological interest by the mining companies that lack mechanisms of environmental and public health protection, the lack of insurance policy, the lack of risk assistance, and in the presence of the audit and monitoring that do not address the local conditions of the mining operations. Based on the above the following concepts were thought of to improve the environmental conditions in mining sector: 1. Was developed the Regional Environmental Management principle based on the local conditions such as physiographic region, local population, and socioeconomic conditions of the area; 2. Devised were criteria for the risk assessment for developing countries. Where the fundamental principals were public health, both near and far from the operation, environmental and biodiversity impact, waste management, long- and short- term rehabilitation plans, compliance with international standards and norms. 3. Developed was the mechanism of the economic motivation to make mining operations "environmentally friendly" that includes defrayal of expenses from both direct and indirect damages. 4. Identified were spheres of possible cooperation between mining companies, government organizations, and the NGOs. These include development of international standards for Good Neighbor Agreement, exchange of environmental information, exchange of successful environmental, health, and safety practices between mining operations from developed and developing countries. The study showed the dire necessity for the mining industry that operates in developing countries to adopt the successful environmental practices used in developed countries. To achieve this goal the Regional Environmental Management principle, the risk assessment criteria, the mechanism of the economic motivation and the principles for international cooperation can play an extremely important role.

Overall requirements for an advanced underground coal extraction system. [environment effects, miner health and safety, production cost, and coal conservation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldsmith, M.; Lavin, M. L.

1980-01-01

Underground mining systems suitable for coal seams expoitable in the year 2000 are examined with particular relevance to the resources of Central Appalachia. Requirements for such systems may be summarized as follows: (1) production cost; (2)miner safety; (3) miner health; (4) environmental impact; and (5) coal conservation. No significant trade offs between production cost and other performance indices were found.

DEMONSTRATION REPORT: Demonstration of Advanced Geophysics and Classification Technologies on Munitions Response Sites Former Fort Ord, Monterey County, CA

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-01

DGM Digital Geophysical Mapping DTSC California Department of Toxic Substances Control EM Electromagnetic EPA U.S. Environmental...land mines, pyrotechnics, bombs , and demolition materials. Surface sweeps identified MEC items throughout Units 11 and 12, including 37mm, 40mm, 57mm...electromagnetic ( EM ) data are being collected. If no GPS readings are collected during that period, the most recent GPS position and the platform

Big, Deep, and Smart Data in Scanning Probe Microscopy

DOE PAGES

Kalinin, Sergei V.; Strelcov, Evgheni; Belianinov, Alex; ...

2016-09-27

Scanning probe microscopy techniques open the door to nanoscience and nanotechnology by enabling imaging and manipulation of structure and functionality of matter on nanometer and atomic scales. We analyze the discovery process by SPM in terms of information flow from tip-surface junction to the knowledge adoption by scientific community. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges and opportunities offered by merging of SPM and advanced data mining, visual analytics, and knowledge discovery technologies.

Naval applications of SC magnet systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gubser, D. U.

The US Navy continues to develop advanced systems that utilize superconducting (SC) magnets. Recent impetus toward the “all” electric ship is accelerating the desire to produce “engineering” prototypes that can be field tested to ascertain the overall impact of these new technologies toward meeting Navy mission requirements. SC magnets for motors, energy storage, mine sweeping, and RF amplifiers are all being built and tested. This article provides a brief description of these projects.

Non-collinear Generation of Angularly Isolated Circularly Polarized High Harmonics

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-09-21

collinear HHG using both intuitive physical models as well as advanced numerical calculations. In the photon picture (Fig. 1b), we show that the NCP...Department of Physics , University of Colorado and NIST, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA. 2Grupo de Investigación en Óptica Extrema, Universidad de... Physics , Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA. *e-mail: danhickstein@gmail.com ARTICLES PUBLISHED ONLINE: 21 SEPTEMBER 2015 | DOI

SIAM Data Mining Brings It’ to Annual Meeting

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-02-24

address space) languages. Jose Moreira and Manoj Kumar from IBM presented the Graph Programming Interface (GPI) as well as a proposal for a common...Samsi (MIT), Dr. Manoj Kumar (IBM Research), Dr. Michel Kinsy (Boston University), and Dr. Shashank Yellapantula (GE Global Research). Dr. Gadepally...and Dr. Samsi discussed advances in data management technologies [22–25], and Dr. Kumar presented a brief overview of a graph-based API IBM is

Hybrid coexpression link similarity graph clustering for mining biological modules from multiple gene expression datasets.

PubMed

Salem, Saeed; Ozcaglar, Cagri

2014-01-01

Advances in genomic technologies have enabled the accumulation of vast amount of genomic data, including gene expression data for multiple species under various biological and environmental conditions. Integration of these gene expression datasets is a promising strategy to alleviate the challenges of protein functional annotation and biological module discovery based on a single gene expression data, which suffers from spurious coexpression. We propose a joint mining algorithm that constructs a weighted hybrid similarity graph whose nodes are the coexpression links. The weight of an edge between two coexpression links in this hybrid graph is a linear combination of the topological similarities and co-appearance similarities of the corresponding two coexpression links. Clustering the weighted hybrid similarity graph yields recurrent coexpression link clusters (modules). Experimental results on Human gene expression datasets show that the reported modules are functionally homogeneous as evident by their enrichment with biological process GO terms and KEGG pathways.

Post-Genomics and Vaccine Improvement for Leishmania

PubMed Central

Seyed, Negar; Taheri, Tahereh; Rafati, Sima

2016-01-01

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease that primarily affects Asia, Africa, South America, and the Mediterranean basin. Despite extensive efforts to develop an effective prophylactic vaccine, no promising vaccine is available yet. However, recent advancements in computational vaccinology on the one hand and genome sequencing approaches on the other have generated new hopes in vaccine development. Computational genome mining for new vaccine candidates is known as reverse vaccinology and is believed to further extend the current list of Leishmania vaccine candidates. Reverse vaccinology can also reduce the intrinsic risks associated with live attenuated vaccines. Individual epitopes arranged in tandem as polytopes are also a possible outcome of reverse genome mining. Here, we will briefly compare reverse vaccinology with conventional vaccinology in respect to Leishmania vaccine, and we will discuss how it influences the aforementioned topics. We will also introduce new in vivo models that will bridge the gap between human and laboratory animal models in future studies. PMID:27092123

Fusion of Local Statistical Parameters for Buried Underwater Mine Detection in Sonar Imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maussang, F.; Rombaut, M.; Chanussot, J.; Hétet, A.; Amate, M.

2008-12-01

Detection of buried underwater objects, and especially mines, is a current crucial strategic task. Images provided by sonar systems allowing to penetrate in the sea floor, such as the synthetic aperture sonars (SASs), are of great interest for the detection and classification of such objects. However, the signal-to-noise ratio is fairly low and advanced information processing is required for a correct and reliable detection of the echoes generated by the objects. The detection method proposed in this paper is based on a data-fusion architecture using the belief theory. The input data of this architecture are local statistical characteristics extracted from SAS data corresponding to the first-, second-, third-, and fourth-order statistical properties of the sonar images, respectively. The interest of these parameters is derived from a statistical model of the sonar data. Numerical criteria are also proposed to estimate the detection performances and to validate the method.

Numerical analysis of the effects induced by normal faults and dip angles on rock bursts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Lishuai; Wang, Pu; Zhang, Peipeng; Zheng, Pengqiang; Xu, Bin

2017-10-01

The study of mining effects under the influences of a normal fault and its dip angle is significant for the prediction and prevention of rock bursts. Based on the geological conditions of panel 2301N in a coalmine, the evolution laws of the strata behaviors of the working face affected by a fault and the instability of the fault induced by mining operations with the working face of the footwall and hanging wall advancing towards a normal fault are studied using UDEC numerical simulation. The mechanism that induces rock burst is revealed, and the influence characteristics of the fault dip angle are analyzed. The results of the numerical simulation are verified by conducting a case study regarding the microseismic events. The results of this study serve as a reference for the prediction of rock bursts and their classification into hazardous areas under similar conditions.

Mars Molniya Orbit Atmospheric Resource Mining

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mueller, Robert P.; Braun, Robert D.; Sibille, Laurent; Sforzo, Brandon; Gonyea, Keir; Ali, Hisham

2016-01-01

This NIAC (NASA Advanced Innovative Concepts) work will focus on Mars and will build on previous efforts at analyzing atmospheric mining at Earth and the outer solar system. Spacecraft systems concepts will be evaluated and traded, to assess feasibility. However the study will primarily examine the architecture and associated missions to explore the closure, constraints and critical parameters through sensitivity studies. The Mars atmosphere consists of 95.5 percent CO2 gas which can be converted to methane fuel (CH4) and Oxidizer (O2) for chemical rocket propulsion, if hydrogen is transported from electrolyzed water on the Mars surface or from Earth. By using a highly elliptical Mars Molniya style orbit, the CO2 atmosphere can be scooped, ram-compressed and stored while the spacecraft dips into the Mars atmosphere at periapsis. Successive orbits result in additional scooping of CO2 gas, which also serves to aerobrake the spacecraft, resulting in a decaying Molniya orbit.

Web usage mining at an academic health sciences library: an exploratory study.

PubMed

Bracke, Paul J

2004-10-01

This paper explores the potential of multinomial logistic regression analysis to perform Web usage mining for an academic health sciences library Website. Usage of database-driven resource gateway pages was logged for a six-month period, including information about users' network addresses, referring uniform resource locators (URLs), and types of resource accessed. It was found that referring URL did vary significantly by two factors: whether a user was on-campus and what type of resource was accessed. Although the data available for analysis are limited by the nature of the Web and concerns for privacy, this method demonstrates the potential for gaining insight into Web usage that supplements Web log analysis. It can be used to improve the design of static and dynamic Websites today and could be used in the design of more advanced Web systems in the future.

High-frequency, long-duration water sampling in acid mine drainage studies: a short review of current methods and recent advances in automated water samplers

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chapin, Thomas

2015-01-01

Hand-collected grab samples are the most common water sampling method but using grab sampling to monitor temporally variable aquatic processes such as diel metal cycling or episodic events is rarely feasible or cost-effective. Currently available automated samplers are a proven, widely used technology and typically collect up to 24 samples during a deployment. However, these automated samplers are not well suited for long-term sampling in remote areas or in freezing conditions. There is a critical need for low-cost, long-duration, high-frequency water sampling technology to improve our understanding of the geochemical response to temporally variable processes. This review article will examine recent developments in automated water sampler technology and utilize selected field data from acid mine drainage studies to illustrate the utility of high-frequency, long-duration water sampling.

Application of metagenomic techniques in mining enzymes from microbial communities for biofuel synthesis.

PubMed

Xing, Mei-Ning; Zhang, Xue-Zhu; Huang, He

2012-01-01

Feedstock for biofuel synthesis is transitioning to lignocelluosic biomass to address criticism over competition between first generation biofuels and food production. As microbial catalysis is increasingly applied for the conversion of biomass to biofuels, increased import has been placed on the development of novel enzymes. With revolutionary advances in sequencer technology and metagenomic sequencing, mining enzymes from microbial communities for biofuel synthesis is becoming more and more practical. The present article highlights the latest research progress on the special characteristics of metagenomic sequencing, which has been a powerful tool for new enzyme discovery and gene functional analysis in the biomass energy field. Critical enzymes recently developed for the pretreatment and conversion of lignocellulosic materials are evaluated with respect to their activity and stability, with additional explorations into xylanase, laccase, amylase, chitinase, and lipolytic biocatalysts for other biomass feedstocks. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Combination of complementary data mining methods for geographical characterization of extra virgin olive oils based on mineral composition.

PubMed

Sayago, Ana; González-Domínguez, Raúl; Beltrán, Rafael; Fernández-Recamales, Ángeles

2018-09-30

This work explores the potential of multi-element fingerprinting in combination with advanced data mining strategies to assess the geographical origin of extra virgin olive oil samples. For this purpose, the concentrations of 55 elements were determined in 125 oil samples from multiple Spanish geographic areas. Several unsupervised and supervised multivariate statistical techniques were used to build classification models and investigate the relationship between mineral composition of olive oils and their provenance. Results showed that Spanish extra virgin olive oils exhibit characteristic element profiles, which can be differentiated on the basis of their origin in accordance with three geographical areas: Atlantic coast (Huelva province), Mediterranean coast and inland regions. Furthermore, statistical modelling yielded high sensitivity and specificity, principally when random forest and support vector machines were employed, thus demonstrating the utility of these techniques in food traceability and authenticity research. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

ASIME 2016 White Paper: Answers to Questions from the Asteroid Miners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galache, Jl; Graps, A. L.; Asime 2016 Contributors, 30

2017-09-01

The aim of the Asteroid Science Intersections with In-Space Mine Engineering (ASIME) 2016 conference on September 21-22, 2016 in Luxembourg City was to provide an environment for the detailed discussion of the specific properties of asteroids, with the engineering needs of space missions that utilise asteroids. The ASIME 2016 Conference produced a layered record of discussions from the asteroid scientists and the asteroid miners to understand each other's key concerns and to address key scientific questions from the asteroid mining companies: Planetary Resources, Deep Space Industries and TransAstra. These Questions were the focus of the two-day conference, were addressed by scientists inside and outside of the ASIME 2016 Conference and were the focus of this White Paper. The answers in this White Paper point to the Science Knowledge Gaps (SKGs) for advancing the asteroid in-space resource utilisation domain.

Mining the human gut microbiome for novel stress resistance genes

PubMed Central

Culligan, Eamonn P.; Marchesi, Julian R.; Hill, Colin; Sleator, Roy D.

2012-01-01

With the rapid advances in sequencing technologies in recent years, the human genome is now considered incomplete without the complementing microbiome, which outnumbers human genes by a factor of one hundred. The human microbiome, and more specifically the gut microbiome, has received considerable attention and research efforts over the past decade. Many studies have identified and quantified “who is there?,” while others have determined some of their functional capacity, or “what are they doing?” In a recent study, we identified novel salt-tolerance loci from the human gut microbiome using combined functional metagenomic and bioinformatics based approaches. Herein, we discuss the identified loci, their role in salt-tolerance and their importance in the context of the gut environment. We also consider the utility and power of functional metagenomics for mining such environments for novel genes and proteins, as well as the implications and possible applications for future research. PMID:22688726

Structural interaction fingerprints: a new approach to organizing, mining, analyzing, and designing protein-small molecule complexes.

PubMed

Singh, Juswinder; Deng, Zhan; Narale, Gaurav; Chuaqui, Claudio

2006-01-01

The combination of advances in structure-based drug design efforts in the pharmaceutical industry in parallel with structural genomics initiatives in the public domain has led to an explosion in the number of structures of protein-small molecule complexes structures. This information has critical importance to both the understanding of the structural basis for molecular recognition in biological systems and the design of better drugs. A significant challenge exists in managing this vast amount of data and fully leveraging it. Here, we review our work to develop a simple, fast way to store, organize, mine, and analyze large numbers of protein-small molecule complexes. We illustrate the utility of the approach to the management of inhibitor complexes from the protein kinase family. Finally, we describe our recent efforts in applying this method to the design of target-focused chemical libraries.

Arizona Copper

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-03-19

Arizona produces 60% of the total copper mined in the US; in 2007, 750,000 tons of copper came out of the state. One of the major mining districts is located about 30 km south of Tucson. Starting around 1950, open-pit mining replaced underground operations, and the ASARCO-Mission complex, Twin Buttes, and Sierrita mines became large open pit operations. Accompanying copper mineralization, silver, molybdenum, zinc, lead and gold are extracted. In addition to the pits themselves, enormous leach ponds and tailings piles surround the pits. The image was acquired May 31, 2012, covers an area of 22 by 28 km, and is located at 31.9 degrees north, 111 degrees west. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on Terra. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and data products. The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat balance. The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. More information about ASTER is available at asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Advanced Space Surface Systems Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huffaker, Zachary Lynn; Mueller, Robert P.

2014-01-01

The importance of advanced surface systems is becoming increasingly relevant in the modern age of space technology. Specifically, projects pursued by the Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations (GMRO) Lab are unparalleled in the field of planetary resourcefulness. This internship opportunity involved projects that support properly utilizing natural resources from other celestial bodies. Beginning with the tele-robotic workstation, mechanical upgrades were necessary to consider for specific portions of the workstation consoles and successfully designed in concept. This would provide more means for innovation and creativity concerning advanced robotic operations. Project RASSOR is a regolith excavator robot whose primary objective is to mine, store, and dump regolith efficiently on other planetary surfaces. Mechanical adjustments were made to improve this robot's functionality, although there were some minor system changes left to perform before the opportunity ended. On the topic of excavator robots, the notes taken by the GMRO staff during the 2013 and 2014 Robotic Mining Competitions were effectively organized and analyzed for logistical purposes. Lessons learned from these annual competitions at Kennedy Space Center are greatly influential to the GMRO engineers and roboticists. Another project that GMRO staff support is Project Morpheus. Support for this project included successfully producing mathematical models of the eroded landing pad surface for the vertical testbed vehicle to predict a timeline for pad reparation. And finally, the last project this opportunity made contribution to was Project Neo, a project exterior to GMRO Lab projects, which focuses on rocket propulsion systems. Additions were successfully installed to the support structure of an original vertical testbed rocket engine, thus making progress towards futuristic test firings in which data will be analyzed by students affiliated with Rocket University. Each project will be explained in further detail, as well as the full scope of the contributions made during this opportunity.

Best practices for mapping replication origins in eukaryotic chromosomes.

PubMed

Besnard, Emilie; Desprat, Romain; Ryan, Michael; Kahli, Malik; Aladjem, Mirit I; Lemaitre, Jean-Marc

2014-09-02

Understanding the regulatory principles ensuring complete DNA replication in each cell division is critical for deciphering the mechanisms that maintain genomic stability. Recent advances in genome sequencing technology facilitated complete mapping of DNA replication sites and helped move the field from observing replication patterns at a handful of single loci to analyzing replication patterns genome-wide. These advances address issues, such as the relationship between replication initiation events, transcription, and chromatin modifications, and identify potential replication origin consensus sequences. This unit summarizes the technological and fundamental aspects of replication profiling and briefly discusses novel insights emerging from mining large datasets, published in the last 3 years, and also describes DNA replication dynamics on a whole-genome scale. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Bits and bytes: the future of radiology lies in informatics and information technology.

PubMed

Brink, James A; Arenson, Ronald L; Grist, Thomas M; Lewin, Jonathan S; Enzmann, Dieter

2017-09-01

Advances in informatics and information technology are sure to alter the practice of medical imaging and image-guided therapies substantially over the next decade. Each element of the imaging continuum will be affected by substantial increases in computing capacity coincident with the seamless integration of digital technology into our society at large. This article focuses primarily on areas where this IT transformation is likely to have a profound effect on the practice of radiology. • Clinical decision support ensures consistent and appropriate resource utilization. • Big data enables correlation of health information across multiple domains. • Data mining advances the quality of medical decision-making. • Business analytics allow radiologists to maximize the benefits of imaging resources.

Toward Usable Interactive Analytics: Coupling Cognition and Computation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Endert, Alexander; North, Chris; Chang, Remco

Interactive analytics provide users a myriad of computational means to aid in extracting meaningful information from large and complex datasets. Much prior work focuses either on advancing the capabilities of machine-centric approaches by the data mining and machine learning communities, or human-driven methods by the visualization and CHI communities. However, these methods do not yet support a true human-machine symbiotic relationship where users and machines work together collaboratively and adapt to each other to advance an interactive analytic process. In this paper we discuss some of the inherent issues, outlining what we believe are the steps toward usable interactive analyticsmore » that will ultimately increase the effectiveness for both humans and computers to produce insights.« less

Key Technologies and Applications of Gas Drainage in Underground Coal Mine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Bo; Xue, Sheng; Cheng, Jiansheng; Li, Wenquan; Xiao, Jiaping

2018-02-01

It is the basis for the long-drilling directional drilling, precise control of the drilling trajectory and ensuring the effective extension of the drilling trajectory in the target layer. The technology can be used to complete the multi-branch hole construction and increase the effective extraction distance of the coal seam. The gas drainage and the bottom grouting reinforcement in the advanced area are realized, and the geological structure of the coal seam can be proved accurately. It is the main technical scheme for the efficient drainage of gas at home and abroad, and it is applied to the field of geological structure exploration and water exploration and other areas. At present, the data transmission method is relatively mature in the technology and application, including the mud pulse and the electromagnetic wave. Compared with the mud pulse transmission mode, the electromagnetic wave transmission mode has obvious potential in the data transmission rate and drilling fluid, and it is suitable for the coal mine. In this paper, the key technologies of the electromagnetic wave transmission mode are analyzed, including the attenuation characteristics of the electromagnetic transmission channel, the digital modulation scheme, the channel coding method and the weak signal processing technology. A coal mine under the electromagnetic wave drilling prototype is developed, and the ground transmission experiments and down hole transmission test are carried out. The main work includes the following aspects. First, the equivalent transmission line method is used to establish the electromagnetic transmission channel model of coal mine drilling while drilling, and the attenuation of the electromagnetic signal is measured when the electromagnetic channel measured. Second, the coal mine EM-MWD digital modulation method is developed. Third, the optimal linear block code which suitable for EM-MWD communication channel in coal mine is proposed. Fourth, the noise characteristics of well near horizontal directional drilling are analyzed, and the multi-stage filter method is proposed to suppress the natural potential and strong frequency interference signal. And the weak electromagnetic communication signal is extracted from the received signal. Finally, the detailed design of the electromagnetic wave while drilling is given.

Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining in Iran's Climatic Researches

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karimi, Mostafa

2013-04-01

Advances in measurement technology and data collection is the database gets larger. Large databases require powerful tools for analysis data. Iterative process of acquiring knowledge from information obtained from data processing is done in various forms in all scientific fields. However, when the data volume large, and many of the problems the Traditional methods cannot respond. in the recent years, use of databases in various scientific fields, especially atmospheric databases in climatology expanded. in addition, increases in the amount of data generated by the climate models is a challenge for analysis of it for extraction of hidden pattern and knowledge. The approach to this problem has been made in recent years uses the process of knowledge discovery and data mining techniques with the use of the concepts of machine learning, artificial intelligence and expert (professional) systems is overall performance. Data manning is analytically process for manning in massive volume data. The ultimate goal of data mining is access to information and finally knowledge. climatology is a part of science that uses variety and massive volume data. Goal of the climate data manning is Achieve to information from variety and massive atmospheric and non-atmospheric data. in fact, Knowledge Discovery performs these activities in a logical and predetermined and almost automatic process. The goal of this research is study of uses knowledge Discovery and data mining technique in Iranian climate research. For Achieve This goal, study content (descriptive) analysis and classify base method and issue. The result shown that in climatic research of Iran most clustering, k-means and wards applied and in terms of issues precipitation and atmospheric circulation patterns most introduced. Although several studies in geography and climate issues with statistical techniques such as clustering and pattern extraction is done, Due to the nature of statistics and data mining, but cannot say for internal climate studies in data mining and knowledge discovery techniques are used. However, it is necessary to use the KDD Approach and DM techniques in the climatic studies, specific interpreter of climate modeling result.

The analysis of the Tectonics - SSS - Seismicity System in the 3D-model of the Rasvumchorr Mine - Central Open Pit Natural and Technical System (Khibiny)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhirov, Dmitry; Klimov, Sergey; Zhirova, Anzhela; Panteleev, Alexey; Rybin, Vadim

2017-04-01

Main hazardous factors during the operation of deposits represent tectonics (structural dislocation), strain and stress state (SSS), and seismicity. The cause and effect relationships in the Fault Tectonics - SSS - Seismicity system were analyzed using a 3D geological and structural Rasvumchorr Mine - Central Open Pit model. This natural and technical system (NTS) has resulted from the development of the world-class apatite-nepheline deposits the Apatite Circus and Rasvumchorr Plateau. The 3D model integrates various spatial data on the earth's surface topography before and after mining, geometry of mines and dumps, SSS measurements and rock pressure, seismicity, fault tectonics and etc. The analysis of the 3D model has clearly demonstrated the localization of three main seismic emanation zones in the areas of maximum anthropogenic variation of the initial rock state, and namely: ore pass zone under the Southern edge of the Central open pit, collapse and joining zone of the Rasvumchorr Mine and NW edge of the open pit, and zone under the Apatite Circus plate - collapse console. And, on the contrary, in the area of a large dump under the underground mine, a perennial seismic minimum zone was identified. The relation of the seismicity and fault tectonics was revealed only in three local sectors near come certain echelon fissures of the Main Fault(MF). No confinement of increased seismicity areas to the MF and other numerous echelon fissures is observed. The same picture occurs towards manifestations of rock pressure. Only an insignificant part of echelon fissures (including low rank of hierarchy) controls hazardous manifestations of rock pressure (dumps, strong deformations of the mine contour, etc.). It is shown that the anthropogenic factor (explosive, geometry and arrangement of mined spaces and collapse console), as well as the time factor significantly change orientation and structure (contrast and heterogeneity) of the stress fields. Time series of natural geophysical field fluctuations were additionally analyzed in order to find relationships with the seismicity. A sustainable regular relationship between the seismicity and solar and lunar tides has been observed; though, medium (classes 3 to 6) and high (class 7 and above) energy values of the events reveal various symmetry towards the Lunar cycle phases. The relationship of seismicity with other geophysical fields, e.g., geomagnetic disturbances, is defined as weak to very weak. The anthropogenic (man-induced) factor mostly influences the seismicity in the NTS rock masses. A law for shifting of maximum seismicity zones following the advance of the mining front has been found. The 3D model integrates various spatial data on the earth's surface topography before and after mining, geometry of mines and dumps, SSS measurements, and rock pressure, seismicity, fault tectonics, and other manifestations. The study is made within R&D topic No. 0231-2015-0013. The collection, processing, and analysis of data for natural stress fields became possible due to the support from RSF grant 14-17-00751.

A Systems-Based Conceptual Framework for Assessing the Determinants of a Social License to Operate in the Mining Industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prno, Jason; Slocombe, D. Scott

2014-03-01

The concept of a "social license to operate" (SLO) was coined in the 1990s and gained popularity as one way in which "social" considerations can be addressed in mineral development decision making. The need for a SLO implies that developers require the widespread approval of local community members for their projects to avoid exposure to potentially costly conflict and business risks. Only a limited amount of scholarship exists on the topic, and there is a need for research that specifically addresses the complex and changeable nature of SLO outcomes. In response to these challenges, this paper advances a novel, systems-based conceptual framework for assessing SLO determinants and outcomes in the mining industry. Two strands of systems theory are specifically highlighted—complex adaptive systems and resilience—and the roles of context, key system variables, emergence, change, uncertainty, feedbacks, cross-scale effects, multiple stable states, thresholds, and resilience are discussed. The framework was developed from the results of a multi-year research project which involved international mining case study investigations, a comprehensive literature review, and interviews conducted with mining stakeholders and observers. The framework can help guide SLO analysis and management efforts, by encouraging users to account for important contextual and complexity-oriented elements present in SLO settings. We apply the framework to a case study in Alaska, USA before discussing its merits and challenges. We also illustrate knowledge gaps associated with applications of complex adaptive systems and resilience theories to the study of SLO dynamics, and discuss opportunities for future research.

The nature of a deformation zone and fault rock related to a recent rockburst at Western Deep Levels Gold Mine, Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stewart, R. A.; Reimold, W. U.; Charlesworth, E. G.; Ortlepp, W. D.

2001-07-01

In August 1998, a major deformation zone was exposed over several metres during mining operations on 87 Level (2463 m below surface) at Western Deep Levels Gold Mine, southwest of Johannesburg, providing a unique opportunity to study the products of a recent rockburst. This zone consists of three shear zones, with dip-slip displacements of up to 15 cm, that are oriented near-parallel to the advancing stope face. Jogs and a highly pulverised, cataclastic 'rock-flour' are developed on the displacement surfaces, and several sets of secondary extensional fractures occur on either side of the shear zones. A set of pinnate (feather) joints intersects the fault surfaces perpendicular to the slip vector. Microscopically, the shear zones consist of two pinnate joint sets that exhibit cataclastic joint fillings; quartz grains display intense intragranular fracturing. Secondary, intergranular extension fractures are associated with the pinnate joints. Extensional deformation is also the cause of the breccia fill of the pinnate joints. The initial deformation experienced by this zone is brittle and tensile, and is related to stresses induced by mining. This deformation has been masked by later changes in the stress field, which resulted in shearing. This deformation zone does not appear to be controlled by pre-existing geological features and, thus, represents a 'burst fracture', which is believed to be related to a seismic event of magnitude ML=2.1 recorded in July 1998, the epicentre of which was located to within 50 m of the study locality.

A systems-based conceptual framework for assessing the determinants of a social license to operate in the mining industry.

PubMed

Prno, Jason; Slocombe, D Scott

2014-03-01

The concept of a "social license to operate" (SLO) was coined in the 1990s and gained popularity as one way in which "social" considerations can be addressed in mineral development decision making. The need for a SLO implies that developers require the widespread approval of local community members for their projects to avoid exposure to potentially costly conflict and business risks. Only a limited amount of scholarship exists on the topic, and there is a need for research that specifically addresses the complex and changeable nature of SLO outcomes. In response to these challenges, this paper advances a novel, systems-based conceptual framework for assessing SLO determinants and outcomes in the mining industry. Two strands of systems theory are specifically highlighted-complex adaptive systems and resilience-and the roles of context, key system variables, emergence, change, uncertainty, feedbacks, cross-scale effects, multiple stable states, thresholds, and resilience are discussed. The framework was developed from the results of a multi-year research project which involved international mining case study investigations, a comprehensive literature review, and interviews conducted with mining stakeholders and observers. The framework can help guide SLO analysis and management efforts, by encouraging users to account for important contextual and complexity-oriented elements present in SLO settings. We apply the framework to a case study in Alaska, USA before discussing its merits and challenges. We also illustrate knowledge gaps associated with applications of complex adaptive systems and resilience theories to the study of SLO dynamics, and discuss opportunities for future research.

Influence on Learning of a Collaborative Learning Method Comprising the Jigsaw Method and Problem-based Learning (PBL).

PubMed

Takeda, Kayoko; Takahashi, Kiyoshi; Masukawa, Hiroyuki; Shimamori, Yoshimitsu

2017-01-01

Recently, the practice of active learning has spread, increasingly recognized as an essential component of academic studies. Classes incorporating small group discussion (SGD) are conducted at many universities. At present, assessments of the effectiveness of SGD have mostly involved evaluation by questionnaires conducted by teachers, by peer assessment, and by self-evaluation of students. However, qualitative data, such as open-ended descriptions by students, have not been widely evaluated. As a result, we have been unable to analyze the processes and methods involved in how students acquire knowledge in SGD. In recent years, due to advances in information and communication technology (ICT), text mining has enabled the analysis of qualitative data. We therefore investigated whether the introduction of a learning system comprising the jigsaw method and problem-based learning (PBL) would improve student attitudes toward learning; we did this by text mining analysis of the content of student reports. We found that by applying the jigsaw method before PBL, we were able to improve student attitudes toward learning and increase the depth of their understanding of the area of study as a result of working with others. The use of text mining to analyze qualitative data also allowed us to understand the processes and methods by which students acquired knowledge in SGD and also changes in students' understanding and performance based on improvements to the class. This finding suggests that the use of text mining to analyze qualitative data could enable teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of various methods employed to improve learning.

Advancing Explosion Source Theory through Experimentation: Results from Seismic Experiments Since the Moratorium on Nuclear Testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonner, J. L.; Stump, B. W.

2011-12-01

On 23 September 1992, the United States conducted the nuclear explosion DIVIDER at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). It would become the last US nuclear test when a moratorium ended testing the following month. Many of the theoretical explosion seismic models used today were developed from observations of hundreds of nuclear tests at NTS and around the world. Since the moratorium, researchers have turned to chemical explosions as a possible surrogate for continued nuclear explosion research. This talk reviews experiments since the moratorium that have used chemical explosions to advance explosion source models. The 1993 Non-Proliferation Experiment examined single-point, fully contained chemical-nuclear equivalence by detonating over a kiloton of chemical explosive at NTS in close proximity to previous nuclear explosion tests. When compared with data from these nearby nuclear explosions, the regional and near-source seismic data were found to be essentially identical after accounting for different yield scaling factors for chemical and nuclear explosions. The relationship between contained chemical explosions and large production mining shots was studied at the Black Thunder coal mine in Wyoming in 1995. The research led to an improved source model for delay-fired mining explosions and a better understanding of mining explosion detection by the International Monitoring System (IMS). The effect of depth was examined in a 1997 Kazakhstan Depth of Burial experiment. Researchers used local and regional seismic observations to conclude that the dominant mechanism for enhanced regional shear waves was local Rg scattering. Travel-time calibration for the IMS was the focus of the 1999 Dead Sea Experiment where a 10-ton shot was recorded as far away as 5000 km. The Arizona Source Phenomenology Experiments provided a comparison of fully- and partially-contained chemical shots with mining explosions, thus quantifying the reduction in seismic amplitudes associated with partial confinement. The Frozen Rock Experiment in 2006 found only minor differences in seismic coupling for explosions in frozen and unfrozen rock. The seismo-acoustic source function was the focus of the above- and below-ground Humble Redwood explosions (2007, 2009 ) in New Mexico and detonations of rocket motor explosions in Utah. Acoustic travel time calibration for the IMS was accomplished with the 2009 and 2011 100-ton surface explosions in southern Israel. The New England Damage Experiment in 2009 correlated increased shear wave generation with increased rock damage from explosions. Damage from explosions continues to be an important research topic at Nevada's National Center for Nuclear Security with the ongoing Source Physics Experiment. A number of exciting experiments are already planned for the future and thus continue the effort to improve global detection, location, and identification of nuclear explosions.

Advanced Chemical Characterization and Physical Properties of Eleven Lubricants.

DTIC Science & Technology

1983-03-01

analysis was performed. The composition of the PAO lubricants was characterized by comparing the peaks obtained from the BPD to hydrocarbon standards and...of reaction time until no further changes in peak size- are measured. After the reaction has been completed, usually 15-30 minutes, the sample is...was deter- mined, using the following equation: E 60 ABcS -Hm where H = Heat of fusion (mcal/mg) A = Peak area (sq in.) qs = Y-axis range [(mcal/sec

Substantiation of artificial composite-structure roof construction in top-down cut-and-fill stoping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rukavishnikov, GD; Neverov, SA; Neverov, AA

2018-03-01

It has been found efficient and safe to use top-down cut-and-fill stoping with saving of the artificial backfill cost and material through the use of a solid nonuniform material composed of two components (layers). It is shown that the artificial roof can be advanced after a stope without essential change in the stope condition as compared with the classical top-down slice method, which provides higher safety of mining.

Dollar Summary of Federal Supply Classification and Service Category by Company, FY84, Part 6 (7540-9999).

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-01-01

MINING & MFG CO NEW JERSEY ARMY STANDARD FORMS 88 FSC TOTAL 1,205 7610 ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY INC VIRGINIA NAVY BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS 80 AIRCRAFT OWNERS...UNIFO PUBLISHERS LTD NEW YORK ARMY BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS 25 UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORP CONN USAF BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS 597 WEST PUBLISHING COMPANY MINNESOTA...DRAWINrS AND SPECIFICATIONS 74 SOLAR TURBINES INCORPORATED CALIFORNIA NAVY DRAWINGS AND SPECIFICATIONS 4CO UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORP CONN NAVY DRAWINGS AND

Big, Deep, and Smart Data in Scanning Probe Microscopy.

PubMed

Kalinin, Sergei V; Strelcov, Evgheni; Belianinov, Alex; Somnath, Suhas; Vasudevan, Rama K; Lingerfelt, Eric J; Archibald, Richard K; Chen, Chaomei; Proksch, Roger; Laanait, Nouamane; Jesse, Stephen

2016-09-27

Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques have opened the door to nanoscience and nanotechnology by enabling imaging and manipulation of the structure and functionality of matter at nanometer and atomic scales. Here, we analyze the scientific discovery process in SPM by following the information flow from the tip-surface junction, to knowledge adoption by the wider scientific community. We further discuss the challenges and opportunities offered by merging SPM with advanced data mining, visual analytics, and knowledge discovery technologies.

The advances of Chinese non-ferrous metal mineral industry and its environmental management

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miao Zewei; Gao Lin; Zhou Xiaoyuan

1998-12-31

With the steady growth of Chinese economy, the nonferrous metal industry of China was also developed quickly. The gross output of ten main nonferrous metals 4.25 million tons in 1995 so that China ranks the fourth in the world. However, a series of environmental problems also occurred, which relate to characteristics of mineral resources, techniques for mining, dressing, smelting and processing, equipment and their management level. The major pollutants include sulphur dioxide, industrial powder-dust and smoke-dust, water containing heavy metal ions as well as solid wastes. Air, water body, soil, vegetation and people`s health were polluted and damaged to differentmore » extent due to the above pollutants. For the purpose of environmental management and pollution control, some measures must be taken: (1) to strengthen environmental planning, accelerate and perfect environmental laws and related regulations as well as spread the consciousness of environmental protection energetically; (2) to extend cleaner production and adopt advanced technologies so as to reduce environmental pollution; (3) to turn the concept of the end-of-pipe management to the whole-process control; (4) to recovery or reuse the wastes fully. In addition, general situation and policies on reclamation of mining land as well as theory, methods and techniques of restoration of waste land were also stated in the paper.« less

Strategic Integration of Multiple Bioinformatics Resources for System Level Analysis of Biological Networks.

PubMed

D'Souza, Mark; Sulakhe, Dinanath; Wang, Sheng; Xie, Bing; Hashemifar, Somaye; Taylor, Andrew; Dubchak, Inna; Conrad Gilliam, T; Maltsev, Natalia

2017-01-01

Recent technological advances in genomics allow the production of biological data at unprecedented tera- and petabyte scales. Efficient mining of these vast and complex datasets for the needs of biomedical research critically depends on a seamless integration of the clinical, genomic, and experimental information with prior knowledge about genotype-phenotype relationships. Such experimental data accumulated in publicly available databases should be accessible to a variety of algorithms and analytical pipelines that drive computational analysis and data mining.We present an integrated computational platform Lynx (Sulakhe et al., Nucleic Acids Res 44:D882-D887, 2016) ( http://lynx.cri.uchicago.edu ), a web-based database and knowledge extraction engine. It provides advanced search capabilities and a variety of algorithms for enrichment analysis and network-based gene prioritization. It gives public access to the Lynx integrated knowledge base (LynxKB) and its analytical tools via user-friendly web services and interfaces. The Lynx service-oriented architecture supports annotation and analysis of high-throughput experimental data. Lynx tools assist the user in extracting meaningful knowledge from LynxKB and experimental data, and in the generation of weighted hypotheses regarding the genes and molecular mechanisms contributing to human phenotypes or conditions of interest. The goal of this integrated platform is to support the end-to-end analytical needs of various translational projects.

RaftProt: mammalian lipid raft proteome database.

PubMed

Shah, Anup; Chen, David; Boda, Akash R; Foster, Leonard J; Davis, Melissa J; Hill, Michelle M

2015-01-01

RaftProt (http://lipid-raft-database.di.uq.edu.au/) is a database of mammalian lipid raft-associated proteins as reported in high-throughput mass spectrometry studies. Lipid rafts are specialized membrane microdomains enriched in cholesterol and sphingolipids thought to act as dynamic signalling and sorting platforms. Given their fundamental roles in cellular regulation, there is a plethora of information on the size, composition and regulation of these membrane microdomains, including a large number of proteomics studies. To facilitate the mining and analysis of published lipid raft proteomics studies, we have developed a searchable database RaftProt. In addition to browsing the studies, performing basic queries by protein and gene names, searching experiments by cell, tissue and organisms; we have implemented several advanced features to facilitate data mining. To address the issue of potential bias due to biochemical preparation procedures used, we have captured the lipid raft preparation methods and implemented advanced search option for methodology and sample treatment conditions, such as cholesterol depletion. Furthermore, we have identified a list of high confidence proteins, and enabled searching only from this list of likely bona fide lipid raft proteins. Given the apparent biological importance of lipid raft and their associated proteins, this database would constitute a key resource for the scientific community. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Traumatic brain injury produced by exposure to blasts, a critical problem in current wars: biomarkers, clinical studies, and animal models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dixon, C. Edward

2011-06-01

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) resulting from exposure to blast energy released by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) has been recognized as the "signature injury" of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Repeated exposure to mild blasts may produce subtle deficits that are difficult to detect and quantify. Several techniques have been used to detect subtle brain dysfunction including neuropsychological assessments, computerized function testing and neuroimaging. Another approach is based on measurement of biologic substances (e.g. proteins) that are released into the body after a TBI. Recent studies measuring biomarkers in CSF and serum from patients with severe TBI have demonstrated the diagnostic, prognostic, and monitoring potential. Advancement of the field will require 1) biochemical mining for new biomarker candidates, 2) clinical validation of utility, 3) technical advances for more sensitive, portable detectors, 4) novel statistical approach to evaluate multiple biomarkers, and 5) commercialization. Animal models have been developed to simulate elements of blast-relevant TBI including gas-driven shock tubes to generate pressure waves similar to those produced by explosives. These models can reproduce hallmark clinical neuropathological responses such as neuronal degeneration and inflammation, as well as behavioral impairments. An important application of these models is to screen novel therapies and conduct proteomic, genomic, and lipodomic studies to mine for new biomarker candidates specific to blast relevant TBI.

BIG DATA ANALYTICS AND PRECISION ANIMAL AGRICULTURE SYMPOSIUM: Machine learning and data mining advance predictive big data analysis in precision animal agriculture.

PubMed

Morota, Gota; Ventura, Ricardo V; Silva, Fabyano F; Koyama, Masanori; Fernando, Samodha C

2018-04-14

Precision animal agriculture is poised to rise to prominence in the livestock enterprise in the domains of management, production, welfare, sustainability, health surveillance, and environmental footprint. Considerable progress has been made in the use of tools to routinely monitor and collect information from animals and farms in a less laborious manner than before. These efforts have enabled the animal sciences to embark on information technology-driven discoveries to improve animal agriculture. However, the growing amount and complexity of data generated by fully automated, high-throughput data recording or phenotyping platforms, including digital images, sensor and sound data, unmanned systems, and information obtained from real-time noninvasive computer vision, pose challenges to the successful implementation of precision animal agriculture. The emerging fields of machine learning and data mining are expected to be instrumental in helping meet the daunting challenges facing global agriculture. Yet, their impact and potential in "big data" analysis have not been adequately appreciated in the animal science community, where this recognition has remained only fragmentary. To address such knowledge gaps, this article outlines a framework for machine learning and data mining and offers a glimpse into how they can be applied to solve pressing problems in animal sciences.

Mining of Microbial Genomes for the Novel Sources of Nitrilases.

PubMed

Sharma, Nikhil; Thakur, Neerja; Raj, Tilak; Savitri; Bhalla, Tek Chand

2017-01-01

Next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) has made it feasible to sequence large number of microbial genomes and advancements in computational biology have opened enormous opportunities to mine genome sequence data for novel genes and enzymes or their sources. In the present communication in silico mining of microbial genomes has been carried out to find novel sources of nitrilases. The sequences selected were analyzed for homology and considered for designing motifs. The manually designed motifs based on amino acid sequences of nitrilases were used to screen 2000 microbial genomes (translated to proteomes). This resulted in identification of one hundred thirty-eight putative/hypothetical sequences which could potentially code for nitrilase activity. In vitro validation of nine predicted sources of nitrilases was done for nitrile/cyanide hydrolyzing activity. Out of nine predicted nitrilases, Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus , Sphingopyxis alaskensis , Saccharomonospora viridis , and Shimwellia blattae were specific for aliphatic nitriles, whereas nitrilases from Geodermatophilus obscurus , Nocardiopsis dassonvillei , Runella slithyformis , and Streptomyces albus possessed activity for aromatic nitriles. Flavobacterium indicum was specific towards potassium cyanide (KCN) which revealed the presence of nitrilase homolog, that is, cyanide dihydratase with no activity for either aliphatic, aromatic, or aryl nitriles. The present study reports the novel sources of nitrilases and cyanide dihydratase which were not reported hitherto by in silico or in vitro studies.

Escondida Mine, Chile

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

Full resolution visible and near-infrared image (1.4 MB) Full resolution shortwave infrared image (1.6 MB) This Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) image covers 30 by 23 km (full images 30 x 37 km) in the Atacama Desert, Chile, and was acquired on April 23, 2000. The Escondida copper, gold, and silver open-pit mine is at an elevation of 3050 m, and began operations in 1990. Current capacity is 127,000 tons/day of ore; in 1999 production totaled 827,000 tons of copper, 150,000 ounces of gold, and 3.53 million ounces of silver. Primary concentrate of the ore is done on-site; the concentrate is then sent to the coast for further processing through a 170 km long, 9-inch pipe. Escondida is related geologically to three porphyry bodies intruded along the Chilean West Fissure Fault System. A high grade supergene cap overlies primary sulfide ore. The top image is a conventional 3-2-1 (near infrared, red, green) RGB composite. The bottom image displays shortwave infrared bands 4-6-8 (1.65um, 2.205um, 2.33um) in RGB, and highlights the different rock types present on the surface, as well as the changes caused by mining. Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Data mining to predict climate hotspots: an experiment in aligning federal climate enterprises in the Northwest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mote, P.; Foster, J. G.; Daley-Laursen, S. B.

2014-12-01

The Northwest has the nation's strongest geographic, institutional, and scientific alignment between NOAA RISA, DOI Climate Science Center, USDA Climate Hub, and participating universities. Considering each of those institutions' distinct mission, funding structures, governance, stakeholder engagement, methods of priority-setting, and deliverables, it is a challenge to find areas of common interest and ways for these institutions to work together. In view of the rich history of stakeholder engagement and the deep base of previous research on climate change in the region, these institutions are cooperating in developing a regional capacity to mine the vast available data in ways that are mutually beneficial, synergistic, and regionally relevant. Fundamentally, data mining means exploring connections across and within multiple datasets using advanced statistical techniques, development of multidimensional indices, machine learning, and more. The challenge is not just what we do with big datasets, but how we integrate the wide variety and types of data coming out of scenario analyses to create knowledge and inform decision-making. Federal agencies and their partners need to learn integrate big data on climate change and develop useful tools for important stake-holders to assist them in anticipating the main stresses of climate change to their own resources and preparing to abate those stresses.

A Comprehensive Workflow of Mass Spectrometry-Based Untargeted Metabolomics in Cancer Metabolic Biomarker Discovery Using Human Plasma and Urine

PubMed Central

Zou, Wei; She, Jianwen; Tolstikov, Vladimir V.

2013-01-01

Current available biomarkers lack sensitivity and/or specificity for early detection of cancer. To address this challenge, a robust and complete workflow for metabolic profiling and data mining is described in details. Three independent and complementary analytical techniques for metabolic profiling are applied: hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC–LC), reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RP–LC), and gas chromatography (GC). All three techniques are coupled to a mass spectrometer (MS) in the full scan acquisition mode, and both unsupervised and supervised methods are used for data mining. The univariate and multivariate feature selection are used to determine subsets of potentially discriminative predictors. These predictors are further identified by obtaining accurate masses and isotopic ratios using selected ion monitoring (SIM) and data-dependent MS/MS and/or accurate mass MSn ion tree scans utilizing high resolution MS. A list combining all of the identified potential biomarkers generated from different platforms and algorithms is used for pathway analysis. Such a workflow combining comprehensive metabolic profiling and advanced data mining techniques may provide a powerful approach for metabolic pathway analysis and biomarker discovery in cancer research. Two case studies with previous published data are adapted and included in the context to elucidate the application of the workflow. PMID:24958150

The dispersion of fibrous amphiboles by glacial processes in the area surrounding Libby, Montana, USA

USGS Publications Warehouse

Langer, William H.; Van Gosen, Bradley S.; Meeker, Gregory P.; Adams, David T.; Hoefen, Todd M.

2011-01-01

Mining operations began at a world-class vermiculite deposit at Vermiculite Mountain near Libby, Montana, circa 1920 and ended in 1990. Fibrous and asbestiform amphiboles intergrown with vermiculite ore are suspected to be a causative factor in an abnormally high number of cases of respiratory diseases in former mine and mill workers, and in residents of Libby. The question addressed in this report is whether some of the amphibole from Vermiculite Mountain could have been dispersed by Pleistocene glacial processes rather than by human activity after vermiculite mining began. The history of Pinedale glaciation in the Libby area provides a framework for estimating the presence and distribution of asbestiform amphiboles derived from Vermiculite Mountain and found in naturally occurring sediments of Glacial Lake Kootenai that underlie the Libby Valley area. There were two situations where sediments derived from Vermiculite Mountain were deposited into Glacial Lake Kootenai: (1) as lake-bottom sediments derived from meltwater flowing down Rainy Creek when the valley south of Vermiculite Mountain was free of ice but active ice still covered Vermiculite Mountain; and (2) as lake-bottom sediments eroded from the Rainy Creek outwash and re-deposited during a re-advance of the Purcell Trench Glacier lobe near Moyie Springs, Idaho.

Spatio-Temporal Pattern Mining on Trajectory Data Using Arm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khoshahval, S.; Farnaghi, M.; Taleai, M.

2017-09-01

Preliminary mobile was considered to be a device to make human connections easier. But today the consumption of this device has been evolved to a platform for gaming, web surfing and GPS-enabled application capabilities. Embedding GPS in handheld devices, altered them to significant trajectory data gathering facilities. Raw GPS trajectory data is a series of points which contains hidden information. For revealing hidden information in traces, trajectory data analysis is needed. One of the most beneficial concealed information in trajectory data is user activity patterns. In each pattern, there are multiple stops and moves which identifies users visited places and tasks. This paper proposes an approach to discover user daily activity patterns from GPS trajectories using association rules. Finding user patterns needs extraction of user's visited places from stops and moves of GPS trajectories. In order to locate stops and moves, we have implemented a place recognition algorithm. After extraction of visited points an advanced association rule mining algorithm, called Apriori was used to extract user activity patterns. This study outlined that there are useful patterns in each trajectory that can be emerged from raw GPS data using association rule mining techniques in order to find out about multiple users' behaviour in a system and can be utilized in various location-based applications.

Reverse engineering biomolecular systems using -omic data: challenges, progress and opportunities.

PubMed

Quo, Chang F; Kaddi, Chanchala; Phan, John H; Zollanvari, Amin; Xu, Mingqing; Wang, May D; Alterovitz, Gil

2012-07-01

Recent advances in high-throughput biotechnologies have led to the rapid growing research interest in reverse engineering of biomolecular systems (REBMS). 'Data-driven' approaches, i.e. data mining, can be used to extract patterns from large volumes of biochemical data at molecular-level resolution while 'design-driven' approaches, i.e. systems modeling, can be used to simulate emergent system properties. Consequently, both data- and design-driven approaches applied to -omic data may lead to novel insights in reverse engineering biological systems that could not be expected before using low-throughput platforms. However, there exist several challenges in this fast growing field of reverse engineering biomolecular systems: (i) to integrate heterogeneous biochemical data for data mining, (ii) to combine top-down and bottom-up approaches for systems modeling and (iii) to validate system models experimentally. In addition to reviewing progress made by the community and opportunities encountered in addressing these challenges, we explore the emerging field of synthetic biology, which is an exciting approach to validate and analyze theoretical system models directly through experimental synthesis, i.e. analysis-by-synthesis. The ultimate goal is to address the present and future challenges in reverse engineering biomolecular systems (REBMS) using integrated workflow of data mining, systems modeling and synthetic biology.

Optical Tracker For Longwall Coal Shearer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Poulsen, Peter D.; Stein, Richard J.; Pease, Robert E.

1989-01-01

Photographic record yields information for correction of vehicle path. Tracking system records lateral movements of longwall coal-shearing vehicle. System detects lateral and vertical deviations of path of vehicle moving along coal face, shearing coal as it goes. Rides on rails in mine tunnel, advancing on toothed track in one of rails. As vehicle moves, retroreflective mirror rides up and down on teeth, providing series of pulsed reflections to film recorder. Recorded positions of pulses, having horizontal and vertical orientations, indicate vertical and horizontal deviations, respectively, of vehicle.

Issues Regarding the Future Application of Autonomous Systems to Command and Control (C2)

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-01

working with Lockheed Martin to build a fleet of land and air drones to deliver cars and even containers of soldiers[OG13]. 5.3.4 Space Deep Space 1...Orlando Belo. Autonomous forex trading agents. In Petra Perner, editor, Advances in Data Mining. Medical Applications, E- Commerce, Marketing, and...http://pando.com/2013/04/02/ want-to-take-on-wall-street-quantopians-algorithmic-trading- platform-now-accepts-outside-data-sets/. CC05. Martin

MEDICI: Mining Essentiality Data to Identify Critical Interactions for Cancer Drug Target Discovery and Development | Office of Cancer Genomics

Cancer.gov

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) mediate the transmission and regulation of oncogenic signals that are essential to cellular proliferation and survival, and thus represent potential targets for anti-cancer therapeutic discovery. Despite their significance, there is no method to experimentally disrupt and interrogate the essentiality of individual endogenous PPIs. The ability to computationally predict or infer PPI essentiality would help prioritize PPIs for drug discovery and help advance understanding of cancer biology.

Inclusions and Their Influence on Material Behavior: Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Conjunction with the 1988 World Materials Congress, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 24-30 September 1988

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-01-01

Columbus Division V TABLE OF CONTENTS Inclusions: Advantages, Disadvantages, and the Technological Trends ................. 1 R. Rungta, A. J...these phases [1]. A similar summary of sulphide Advances in noninvasive technologies for de- inclusions important to steel making is shown in tecting and...MEASUREMENT OF SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF INCLUSIONS M. T. Shehata, J. D. Boyd Metals Technology Laboratories CANMET - Energy, Mines & Resources Canada Ottawa

Alexandra Masaitis, UNR NV, USA. PhD Grad St. Principles of Adoption of the Successful Environmental Policies and Practices Used in Developed Countries into the Russian Mining Industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Masaitis, A.

2012-12-01

The successful implementation of the environmental policies in the mining industry is of a paramount importance, as it not only prevents both local and trans-border pollution but also guarantees a clean and healthy environment for the people regardless of their place of habitation. It is especially important to encourage the progress of the environmental policy implementation in less regulated countries such as the Russia because such countries have resource-oriented economy based on development of nonrenewable resources. Poor environmental practices in such countries will lead to local environmental crises that could eventually spill into surrounding countries including the most economically advanced. This abstract is a summary of a two-year research project attempted (1) to determine deficiencies of the Russian mining sector ecological policies and (2) to suggest substitute policies from developed countries that could be adapted to the Russian reality. The following research methods were used: 1. The method of the system analysis, where the system is an interaction of the sets of environmental policies; 2. The comparative method of inquiry, 3. Quantitative data analysis, where data was collected from "The collection of statistic data", the US EPA open reports, and the USGS Reports; 4. Review of the Norilsk Nickel Company annual reports. The following results were obtained: Identified the systemic crisis of the ecological environmental policies in the Russian mining sector based on the development of nonrenewable resources, in the absence of the ecological interest by the mining companies that lack mechanisms of environmental and public health protection, the lack of insurance policy, the lack of risk assessment, and in the presence of the audit and monitoring that do not address the local conditions. Based on the above, the following concepts were thought of to improve the environmental conditions in the Russian mining sector: 1. Was developed the Regional Environmental Management principle based on the local conditions; 2. Devised were criteria for the risk assessment for mining operations in Russia. Where the fundamental principals were public health, environmental and biodiversity impact, long- and short- term rehabilitation plans, compliance with international standards and norms. Every criterion has grade level of probability that directly affects quarterly fees. 3. Developed was the mechanism of the economic motivation to make mining operations "environmentally friendly" that includes defrayal of expenses from both direct and indirect damages. 4. Identified were spheres of possible cooperation between mining companies, government organizations, and the NGOs. These include development of standards for Good Neighbor Agreement, exchange of environmental information, international exchange of successful environmental, health, and safety practices. The study showed the necessity for the Russian Federation mining industry to adopt the more successful environmental policies and practices used in developed countries. To achieve this goal the Regional Environmental Management principle, the risk assessment criteria, the mechanism of the economic motivation, and the principles for international cooperation can play an extremely important role.

Novel opportunities for computational biology and sociology in drug discovery☆

PubMed Central

Yao, Lixia; Evans, James A.; Rzhetsky, Andrey

2013-01-01

Current drug discovery is impossible without sophisticated modeling and computation. In this review we outline previous advances in computational biology and, by tracing the steps involved in pharmaceutical development, explore a range of novel, high-value opportunities for computational innovation in modeling the biological process of disease and the social process of drug discovery. These opportunities include text mining for new drug leads, modeling molecular pathways and predicting the efficacy of drug cocktails, analyzing genetic overlap between diseases and predicting alternative drug use. Computation can also be used to model research teams and innovative regions and to estimate the value of academy–industry links for scientific and human benefit. Attention to these opportunities could promise punctuated advance and will complement the well-established computational work on which drug discovery currently relies. PMID:20349528

Understanding the Future Market for NovaSAR-S Flood Mapping Products Using Data Mining and Simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lavender, Samantha; Haria, Kajal; Cooksley, Geraint; Farman, Alex; Beaton, Thomas

2016-08-01

The aim was to understand a future market for NovaSAR-S, with a particular focus on flood mapping, through developing a simple Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) simulator that can be used in advance of NovaSAR-S data becoming available.The return signal was determined from a combination of a terrain or elevation model, Envisat S-Band Radar Altimeter (RA)-2, Landsat and CORINE land cover information; allowing for a simulation of a SAR image that's influenced by both the geometry and surface type. The test sites correspond to data from the 2014 AirSAR campaign, and validation is performed by using AirSAR together with Envisat Advanced (ASAR) and Advanced Land Observing Satellite "Daichi" (ALOS) Phased Array type L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data.It's envisaged that the resulting simulated data, and the simulator, will not only aid early understanding of NovaSAR-S, but will also aid the development of flood mapping applications.

Risk identification and prediction of coal workers' pneumoconiosis in Kailuan Colliery Group in China: a historical cohort study.

PubMed

Shen, Fuhai; Yuan, Juxiang; Sun, Zhiqian; Hua, Zhengbing; Qin, Tianbang; Yao, Sanqiao; Fan, Xueyun; Chen, Weihong; Liu, Hongbo; Chen, Jie

2013-01-01

Prior to 1970, coal mining technology and prevention measures in China were poor. Mechanized coal mining equipment and advanced protection measures were continuously installed in the mines after 1970. All these improvements may have resulted in a change in the incidence of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP). Therefore, it is important to identify the characteristics of CWP today and trends for the incidence of CWP in the future. A total of 17,023 coal workers from the Kailuan Colliery Group were studied. A life-table method was used to calculate the cumulative incidence rate of CWP and predict the number of new CWP patients in the future. The probability of developing CWP was estimated by a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network for each coal worker without CWP. The results showed that the cumulative incidence rates of CWP for tunneling, mining, combining, and helping workers were 31.8%, 27.5%, 24.2%, and 2.6%, respectively, during the same observation period of 40 years. It was estimated that there would be 844 new CWP cases among 16,185 coal workers without CWP within their life expectancy. There would be 273.1, 273.1, 227.6, and 69.9 new CWP patients in the next <10, 10-, 20-, and 30- years respectively in the study cohort within their life expectancy. It was identified that coal workers whose risk probabilities were over 0.2 were at high risk for CWP, and whose risk probabilities were under 0.1 were at low risk. The present and future incidence trends of CWP remain high among coal workers. We suggest that coal workers at high risk of CWP undergo a physical examination for pneumoconiosis every year, and the coal workers at low risk of CWP be examined every 5 years.

On-line Machine Learning and Event Detection in Petascale Data Streams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, David R.; Wagstaff, K. L.

2012-01-01

Traditional statistical data mining involves off-line analysis in which all data are available and equally accessible. However, petascale datasets have challenged this premise since it is often impossible to store, let alone analyze, the relevant observations. This has led the machine learning community to investigate adaptive processing chains where data mining is a continuous process. Here pattern recognition permits triage and followup decisions at multiple stages of a processing pipeline. Such techniques can also benefit new astronomical instruments such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and Square Kilometre Array (SKA) that will generate petascale data volumes. We summarize some machine learning perspectives on real time data mining, with representative cases of astronomical applications and event detection in high volume datastreams. The first is a "supervised classification" approach currently used for transient event detection at the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). It injects known signals of interest - faint single-pulse anomalies - and tunes system parameters to recover these events. This permits meaningful event detection for diverse instrument configurations and observing conditions whose noise cannot be well-characterized in advance. Second, "semi-supervised novelty detection" finds novel events based on statistical deviations from previous patterns. It detects outlier signals of interest while considering known examples of false alarm interference. Applied to data from the Parkes pulsar survey, the approach identifies anomalous "peryton" phenomena that do not match previous event models. Finally, we consider online light curve classification that can trigger adaptive followup measurements of candidate events. Classifier performance analyses suggest optimal survey strategies, and permit principled followup decisions from incomplete data. These examples trace a broad range of algorithm possibilities available for online astronomical data mining. This talk describes research performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Copyright 2012, All Rights Reserved. U.S. Government support acknowledged.

James Craufurd Gregory, 19th century Scottish physicians, and the link between occupation as a coal miner and lung disease.

PubMed

Donaldson, K; Wallace, W A; Elliot, T A; Henry, C

2017-09-01

By the mid-19th century about 200,000 miners were employed in a UK coal mining industry still growing with the advances of the Industrial Revolution. Coal miners were long known to suffer poor health but the link to inhaling dust in the mines had not been made. In 1813 George Pearson was the first to suggest that darkening of lungs seen in normal individuals as they aged was caused by inhaled soot from burning oil, candles and coal, which were the common domestic sources of heat and light. In 1831 Dr James Craufurd Gregory first described black pigmentation and disease in the lungs of a deceased coal miner and linked this to pulmonary accumulation of coal mine dust. Gregory hypothesised that the black material seen at autopsy in the collier's lungs was inhaled coal dust and this was confirmed by chemical analysis carried out by Professor Sir Robert Christison. Gregory suggested that coal dust was the cause of the disease and warned physicians in mining areas to be vigilant for the disease. This first description of what came to be known as 'coal worker's pneumoconiosis' sparked a remarkable intellectual effort by physicians in Scotland, culminating in a large body of published work that led to the first understandings of this disease and its link to coalblackened lungs. This paper sets out the history of the role of Scottish physicians in gaining this understanding of coal worker's pneumoconiosis. It describes Gregory's case and the lung - recently discovered in the pathology collection of the Surgeons' Hall Museums, Edinburgh, where it has lain unnoticed for over 180 years - on which Gregory based his landmark paper.

2nd International Symposium on Fundamental Aspects of Rare-earth Elements Mining and Separation and Modern Materials Engineering (REES-2015)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tavadyan, Levon, Prof; Sachkov, Viktor, Prof; Godymchuk, Anna, Dr.; Bogdan, Anna

2016-01-01

The 2nd International Symposium «Fundamental Aspects of Rare-earth Elements Mining and Separation and Modern Materials Engineering» (REES2015) was jointly organized by Tomsk State University (Russia), National Academy of Science (Armenia), Shenyang Polytechnic University (China), Moscow Institute of Physics and Engineering (Russia), Siberian Physical-technical Institute (Russia), and Tomsk Polytechnic University (Russia) in September, 7-15, 2015, Belokuriha, Russia. The Symposium provided a high quality of presentations and gathered engineers, scientists, academicians, and young researchers working in the field of rare and rare earth elements mining, modification, separation, elaboration and application, in order to facilitate aggregation and sharing interests and results for a better collaboration and activity visibility. The goal of the REES2015 was to bring researchers and practitioners together to share the latest knowledge on rare and rare earth elements technologies. The Symposium was aimed at presenting new trends in rare and rare earth elements mining, research and separation and recent achievements in advanced materials elaboration and developments for different purposes, as well as strengthening the already existing contacts between manufactures, highly-qualified specialists and young scientists. The topics of the REES2015 were: (1) Problems of extraction and separation of rare and rare earth elements; (2) Methods and approaches to the separation and isolation of rare and rare earth elements with ultra-high purity; (3) Industrial technologies of production and separation of rare and rare earth elements; (4) Economic aspects in technology of rare and rare earth elements; and (5) Rare and rare earth based materials (application in metallurgy, catalysis, medicine, optoelectronics, etc.). We want to thank the Organizing Committee, the Universities and Sponsors supporting the Symposium, and everyone who contributed to the organization of the event and to publication of this proceeding.

Correlating Microbial Diversity Patterns with Geochemistry in an Extreme and Heterogeneous Environment of Mine Tailings

PubMed Central

Liu, Jun; Hua, Zheng-Shuang; Chen, Lin-Xing; Kuang, Jia-Liang; Li, Sheng-Jin; Shu, Wen-Sheng

2014-01-01

Recent molecular surveys have advanced our understanding of the forces shaping the large-scale ecological distribution of microbes in Earth's extreme habitats, such as hot springs and acid mine drainage. However, few investigations have attempted dense spatial analyses of specific sites to resolve the local diversity of these extraordinary organisms and how communities are shaped by the harsh environmental conditions found there. We have applied a 16S rRNA gene-targeted 454 pyrosequencing approach to explore the phylogenetic differentiation among 90 microbial communities from a massive copper tailing impoundment generating acidic drainage and coupled these variations in community composition with geochemical parameters to reveal ecological interactions in this extreme environment. Our data showed that the overall microbial diversity estimates and relative abundances of most of the dominant lineages were significantly correlated with pH, with the simplest assemblages occurring under extremely acidic conditions and more diverse assemblages associated with neutral pHs. The consistent shifts in community composition along the pH gradient indicated that different taxa were involved in the different acidification stages of the mine tailings. Moreover, the effect of pH in shaping phylogenetic structure within specific lineages was also clearly evident, although the phylogenetic differentiations within the Alphaproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, and Firmicutes were attributed to variations in ferric and ferrous iron concentrations. Application of the microbial assemblage prediction model further supported pH as the major factor driving community structure and demonstrated that several of the major lineages are readily predictable. Together, these results suggest that pH is primarily responsible for structuring whole communities in the extreme and heterogeneous mine tailings, although the diverse microbial taxa may respond differently to various environmental conditions. PMID:24727268

Hybrid coexpression link similarity graph clustering for mining biological modules from multiple gene expression datasets

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Advances in genomic technologies have enabled the accumulation of vast amount of genomic data, including gene expression data for multiple species under various biological and environmental conditions. Integration of these gene expression datasets is a promising strategy to alleviate the challenges of protein functional annotation and biological module discovery based on a single gene expression data, which suffers from spurious coexpression. Results We propose a joint mining algorithm that constructs a weighted hybrid similarity graph whose nodes are the coexpression links. The weight of an edge between two coexpression links in this hybrid graph is a linear combination of the topological similarities and co-appearance similarities of the corresponding two coexpression links. Clustering the weighted hybrid similarity graph yields recurrent coexpression link clusters (modules). Experimental results on Human gene expression datasets show that the reported modules are functionally homogeneous as evident by their enrichment with biological process GO terms and KEGG pathways. PMID:25221624

Mining the human gut microbiota for effector strains that shape the immune system

PubMed Central

Ahern, Philip P.; Faith, Jeremiah J.; Gordon, Jeffrey I.

2014-01-01

Summary The gut microbiota co-develops with the immune system beginning at birth. Mining the microbiota for bacterial strains responsible for shaping the structure and dynamic operations of the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system represents a formidable combinatorial problem but one that needs to be overcome to advance mechanistic understanding of microbial community-immune system co-regulation, and in order to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches that promote health. Here, we discuss a scalable, less biased approach for identifying effector strains in complex microbial communities that impact immune function. The approach begins by identifying uncultured human fecal microbiota samples that transmit immune phenotypes to germ-free mice. Clonally-arrayed sequenced collections of bacterial strains are constructed from representative donor microbiota. If the collection transmits phenotypes, effector strains are identified by testing randomly generated subsets with overlapping membership in individually-housed germ-free animals. Detailed mechanistic studies of effector strain-host interactions can then be performed. PMID:24950201

Ontology-supported research on vaccine efficacy, safety and integrative biological networks.

PubMed

He, Yongqun

2014-07-01

While vaccine efficacy and safety research has dramatically progressed with the methods of in silico prediction and data mining, many challenges still exist. A formal ontology is a human- and computer-interpretable set of terms and relations that represent entities in a specific domain and how these terms relate to each other. Several community-based ontologies (including Vaccine Ontology, Ontology of Adverse Events and Ontology of Vaccine Adverse Events) have been developed to support vaccine and adverse event representation, classification, data integration, literature mining of host-vaccine interaction networks, and analysis of vaccine adverse events. The author further proposes minimal vaccine information standards and their ontology representations, ontology-based linked open vaccine data and meta-analysis, an integrative One Network ('OneNet') Theory of Life, and ontology-based approaches to study and apply the OneNet theory. In the Big Data era, these proposed strategies provide a novel framework for advanced data integration and analysis of fundamental biological networks including vaccine immune mechanisms.

Systems and methods for knowledge discovery in spatial data

DOEpatents

Obradovic, Zoran; Fiez, Timothy E.; Vucetic, Slobodan; Lazarevic, Aleksandar; Pokrajac, Dragoljub; Hoskinson, Reed L.

2005-03-08

Systems and methods are provided for knowledge discovery in spatial data as well as to systems and methods for optimizing recipes used in spatial environments such as may be found in precision agriculture. A spatial data analysis and modeling module is provided which allows users to interactively and flexibly analyze and mine spatial data. The spatial data analysis and modeling module applies spatial data mining algorithms through a number of steps. The data loading and generation module obtains or generates spatial data and allows for basic partitioning. The inspection module provides basic statistical analysis. The preprocessing module smoothes and cleans the data and allows for basic manipulation of the data. The partitioning module provides for more advanced data partitioning. The prediction module applies regression and classification algorithms on the spatial data. The integration module enhances prediction methods by combining and integrating models. The recommendation module provides the user with site-specific recommendations as to how to optimize a recipe for a spatial environment such as a fertilizer recipe for an agricultural field.

A web server for mining Comparative Genomic Hybridization (CGH) data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Jun; Ranka, Sanjay; Kahveci, Tamer

2007-11-01

Advances in cytogenetics and molecular biology has established that chromosomal alterations are critical in the pathogenesis of human cancer. Recurrent chromosomal alterations provide cytological and molecular markers for the diagnosis and prognosis of disease. They also facilitate the identification of genes that are important in carcinogenesis, which in the future may help in the development of targeted therapy. A large amount of publicly available cancer genetic data is now available and it is growing. There is a need for public domain tools that allow users to analyze their data and visualize the results. This chapter describes a web based software tool that will allow researchers to analyze and visualize Comparative Genomic Hybridization (CGH) datasets. It employs novel data mining methodologies for clustering and classification of CGH datasets as well as algorithms for identifying important markers (small set of genomic intervals with aberrations) that are potentially cancer signatures. The developed software will help in understanding the relationships between genomic aberrations and cancer types.

Ontology-supported Research on Vaccine Efficacy, Safety, and Integrative Biological Networks

PubMed Central

He, Yongqun

2016-01-01

Summary While vaccine efficacy and safety research has dramatically progressed with the methods of in silico prediction and data mining, many challenges still exist. A formal ontology is a human- and computer-interpretable set of terms and relations that represent entities in a specific domain and how these terms relate to each other. Several community-based ontologies (including the Vaccine Ontology, Ontology of Adverse Events, and Ontology of Vaccine Adverse Events) have been developed to support vaccine and adverse event representation, classification, data integration, literature mining of host-vaccine interaction networks, and analysis of vaccine adverse events. The author further proposes minimal vaccine information standards and their ontology representations, ontology-based linked open vaccine data and meta-analysis, an integrative One Network (“OneNet”) Theory of Life, and ontology-based approaches to study and apply the OneNet theory. In the Big Data era, these proposed strategies provide a novel framework for advanced data integration and analysis of fundamental biological networks including vaccine immune mechanisms. PMID:24909153

Data mining-based coefficient of influence factors optimization of test paper reliability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Peiyao; Jiang, Huiping; Wei, Jieyao

2018-05-01

Test is a significant part of the teaching process. It demonstrates the final outcome of school teaching through teachers' teaching level and students' scores. The analysis of test paper is a complex operation that has the characteristics of non-linear relation in the length of the paper, time duration and the degree of difficulty. It is therefore difficult to optimize the coefficient of influence factors under different conditions in order to get text papers with clearly higher reliability with general methods [1]. With data mining techniques like Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Genetic Algorithm (GA), we can model the test paper analysis and optimize the coefficient of impact factors for higher reliability. It's easy to find that the combination of SVR and GA can get an effective advance in reliability from the test results. The optimal coefficient of influence factors optimization has a practicability in actual application, and the whole optimizing operation can offer model basis for test paper analysis.

Challenges and Opportunities in Mining Neuroscience Data

PubMed Central

Akil, Huda; Martone, Maryann E.; Van Essen, David C.

2011-01-01

Understanding the brain requires a broad range of approaches and methods from the domains of biology, psychology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. The fundamental challenge is to decipher the “neural choreography” associated with complex behaviors and functions, including thoughts, memories, actions, and emotions. This demands the acquisition and integration of vast amounts of data of many types, at multiple scales in time and in space. Here, we discuss the need for neuroinformatics approaches to accelerate progress, using several illustrative examples. The nascent field of ‘connectomics’ aims to comprehensively describe neuronal connectivity at either a macroscopic level (long-distance pathways for the entire brain) or a microscopic level (axons, dendrites, synapses in a small brain region). The Neuroscience Information Framework encompasses all of neuroscience and facilitates integration of existing knowledge and databases of many types. These examples illustrate the opportunities and challenges of data mining across multiple tiers of neuroscience information and underscore the need for cultural and infrastructure changes if neuroinformatics is to fulfill its potential to advance our understanding of the brain. PMID:21311009

Analysis of post-mining excavations as places for municipal waste

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Górniak-Zimroz, Justyna

2018-01-01

Waste management planning is an interdisciplinary task covering a wide range of issues including costs, legal requirements, spatial planning, environmental protection, geography, demographics, and techniques used in collecting, transporting, processing and disposing of waste. Designing and analyzing this issue is difficult and requires the use of advanced analysis methods and tools available in GIS geographic information systems containing readily available graphical and descriptive databases, data analysis tools providing expert decision support while selecting the best-designed alternative, and simulation models that allow the user to simulate many variants of waste management together with graphical visualization of the results of performed analyzes. As part of the research study, there have been works undertaken concerning the use of multi-criteria data analysis in waste management in areas located in southwestern Poland. These works have proposed the inclusion in waste management of post-mining excavations as places for the final or temporary collection of waste assessed in terms of their suitability with the tools available in GIS systems.

Simulation models and designs for advanced Fischer-Tropsch technology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Choi, G.N.; Kramer, S.J.; Tam, S.S.

1995-12-31

Process designs and economics were developed for three grass-roots indirect Fischer-Tropsch coal liquefaction facilities. A baseline and an alternate upgrading design were developed for a mine-mouth plant located in southern Illinois using Illinois No. 6 coal, and one for a mine-mouth plane located in Wyoming using Power River Basin coal. The alternate design used close-coupled ZSM-5 reactors to upgrade the vapor stream leaving the Fischer-Tropsch reactor. ASPEN process simulation models were developed for all three designs. These results have been reported previously. In this study, the ASPEN process simulation model was enhanced to improve the vapor/liquid equilibrium calculations for themore » products leaving the slurry bed Fischer-Tropsch reactors. This significantly improved the predictions for the alternate ZSM-5 upgrading design. Another model was developed for the Wyoming coal case using ZSM-5 upgrading of the Fischer-Tropsch reactor vapors. To date, this is the best indirect coal liquefaction case. Sensitivity studies showed that additional cost reductions are possible.« less

Predicting future discoveries from current scientific literature.

PubMed

Petrič, Ingrid; Cestnik, Bojan

2014-01-01

Knowledge discovery in biomedicine is a time-consuming process starting from the basic research, through preclinical testing, towards possible clinical applications. Crossing of conceptual boundaries is often needed for groundbreaking biomedical research that generates highly inventive discoveries. We demonstrate the ability of a creative literature mining method to advance valuable new discoveries based on rare ideas from existing literature. When emerging ideas from scientific literature are put together as fragments of knowledge in a systematic way, they may lead to original, sometimes surprising, research findings. If enough scientific evidence is already published for the association of such findings, they can be considered as scientific hypotheses. In this chapter, we describe a method for the computer-aided generation of such hypotheses based on the existing scientific literature. Our literature-based discovery of NF-kappaB with its possible connections to autism was recently approved by scientific community, which confirms the ability of our literature mining methodology to accelerate future discoveries based on rare ideas from existing literature.

Current Developments in Machine Learning Techniques in Biological Data Mining.

PubMed

Dumancas, Gerard G; Adrianto, Indra; Bello, Ghalib; Dozmorov, Mikhail

2017-01-01

This supplement is intended to focus on the use of machine learning techniques to generate meaningful information on biological data. This supplement under Bioinformatics and Biology Insights aims to provide scientists and researchers working in this rapid and evolving field with online, open-access articles authored by leading international experts in this field. Advances in the field of biology have generated massive opportunities to allow the implementation of modern computational and statistical techniques. Machine learning methods in particular, a subfield of computer science, have evolved as an indispensable tool applied to a wide spectrum of bioinformatics applications. Thus, it is broadly used to investigate the underlying mechanisms leading to a specific disease, as well as the biomarker discovery process. With a growth in this specific area of science comes the need to access up-to-date, high-quality scholarly articles that will leverage the knowledge of scientists and researchers in the various applications of machine learning techniques in mining biological data.

Community challenges in biomedical text mining over 10 years: success, failure and the future

PubMed Central

Huang, Chung-Chi

2016-01-01

One effective way to improve the state of the art is through competitions. Following the success of the Critical Assessment of protein Structure Prediction (CASP) in bioinformatics research, a number of challenge evaluations have been organized by the text-mining research community to assess and advance natural language processing (NLP) research for biomedicine. In this article, we review the different community challenge evaluations held from 2002 to 2014 and their respective tasks. Furthermore, we examine these challenge tasks through their targeted problems in NLP research and biomedical applications, respectively. Next, we describe the general workflow of organizing a Biomedical NLP (BioNLP) challenge and involved stakeholders (task organizers, task data producers, task participants and end users). Finally, we summarize the impact and contributions by taking into account different BioNLP challenges as a whole, followed by a discussion of their limitations and difficulties. We conclude with future trends in BioNLP challenge evaluations. PMID:25935162

A cislunar transportation system fuelled by lunar resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sowers, G. F.

2016-11-01

A transportation system for a self sustaining economy in cislunar space is discussed. The system is based on liquid oxygen (LO2), liquid hydrogen (LH2) propulsion whose fuels are derived from ice mined at the polar regions of the Moon. The elements of the transportation system consist of the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES) and the XEUS lander, both being developed by United Launch Alliance (ULA). The main propulsion elements and structures are common between ACES and XEUS. Both stages are fully reusable with refueling of their LO2/LH2 propellants. Utilization of lunar sourced propellants has the potential to dramatically lower the cost of transportation within the cislunar environs. These lower costs dramatically lower the barriers to entry of a number of promising cislunar based activities including space solar power. One early application of the architecture is providing lunar sourced propellant to refuel ACES for traditional spacecraft deployment missions. The business case for this application provides an economic framework for a potential lunar water mining operation.

Geophysical examination of coal deposits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jackson, L. J.

1981-04-01

Geophysical techniques for the solution of mining problems and as an aid to mine planning are reviewed. Techniques of geophysical borehole logging are discussed. The responses of the coal seams to logging tools are easily recognized on the logging records. Cores for laboratory analysis are cut from selected sections of the borehole. In addition, information about the density and chemical composition of the coal may be obtained. Surface seismic reflection surveys using two dimensional arrays of seismic sources and detectors detect faults with throws as small as 3 m depths of 800 m. In geologically disturbed areas, good results have been obtained from three dimensional surveys. Smaller faults as far as 500 m in advance of the working face may be detected using in seam seismic surveying conducted from a roadway or working face. Small disturbances are detected by pulse radar and continuous wave electromagnetic methods either from within boreholes or from underground. Other geophysical techniques which explicit the electrical, magnetic, gravitational, and geothermal properties of rocks are described.

Numerical modelling of the groundwater inflow to an advancing open pit mine: Kolahdarvazeh pit, Central Iran.

PubMed

Bahrami, Saeed; Doulati Ardejani, Faramarz; Aslani, Soheyla; Baafi, Ernest

2014-12-01

The groundwater inflow into a mine during its life and after ceasing operations is one of the most important concerns of the mining industry. This paper presents a hydrogeological assessment of the Irankuh Zn-Pb mine at 20 km south of Esfahan and 1 km northeast of Abnil in west-Central Iran. During mine excavation, the upper impervious bed of a confined aquifer was broken and water at high-pressure flowed into an open pit mine associated with the Kolahdarvazeh deposit. The inflow rates were 6.7 and 1.4 m(3)/s at the maximum and minimum quantities, respectively. Permeability, storage coefficient, thickness and initial head of the fully saturated confined aquifer were 3.5 × 10(-4) m/s, 0.2, 30 m and 60 m, respectively. The hydraulic heads as a function of time were monitored at four observation wells in the vicinity of the pit over 19 weeks and at an observation well near a test well over 21 h. In addition, by measuring the rate of pumping out from the pit sump, at a constant head (usually equal to height of the pit floor), the real inflow rates to the pit were monitored. The main innovations of this work were to make comparison between numerical modelling using a finite element software called SEEP/W and actual data related to inflow and extend the applicability of the numerical model. This model was further used to estimate the hydraulic heads at the observation wells around the pit over 19 weeks during mining operations. Data from a pump-out test and observation wells were used for model calibration and verification. In order to evaluate the model efficiency, the modelling results of inflow quantity and hydraulic heads were compared to those from analytical solutions, as well as the field data. The mean percent error in relation to field data for the inflow quantity was 0.108. It varied between 1.16 and 1.46 for hydraulic head predictions, which are much lower values than the mean percent errors resulted from the analytical solutions (from 1.8 to 5.3 for inflow and from 2.16 to 3.5 for hydraulic head predictions). The analytical solutions underestimated the inflow compared to the numerical model for the time period of 2-19 weeks. The results presented in this paper can be used for developing an effective dewatering program.

Comparison between the fluid characteristics of the Rodalquilar and two neighbouring epithermal gold deposits in Spain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sänger-von Oepen, P.; Friedrich, G.; Kisters, A.

1990-12-01

The operating Rodalquilar gold deposit and the abandoned Triunfo and Maria Josefa gold mines are located within the Sierra del Cabo de Gata volcanic field some 40 km east of Almeria in SE Spain. While the gold mineralization at Rodalquilar is mainly controlled by caldera-tectonics, vein structures at Triunfo and Maria Josefa are not. Wall-rock alteration at Triunfo and Maria Josefa is characterized by argillic alteration (illite/sericite, kaolinite). The alteration zonation around the gold-mineralized vein structures at Rodalquilar ranges from advanced argillic alteration (porous quartz, alunite, pyrophyllite, dickite) over argillic alteration into a regionally developed propylitization. Fluid inclusion studies from all three mines indicate that gold was deposited from low-salinity fluids (2 5 wt.% NaCl equivalent) between 170° and 250 °C. However, the hydrothermal system at Rodalquilar was fed by a second fluid source. High-salinity, halite and/or sylvite-bearing, liquid-rich, and vapour-dominated, CO2-bearing fluid inclusions are assumed to be of magmatic origin. High sulfidation ore mineral assemblages at depth (covellite, enargite, tennantite) and part of the advanced argillic alteration can be related to these fluids. Thus, part of those features which attribute the Rodalquilar gold deposit to the acid-sulfate or high sulfidation type of epithermal gold deposits, stem from magmatically derived fluids which are typical for a porphyry environment, whereas gold mineralization at all three localities is associated with low-salinity fluids, probably of marine origin.

A Systematic Bioinformatics Approach to Identify High Quality Mass Spectrometry Data and Functionally Annotate Proteins and Proteomes.

PubMed

Islam, Mohammad Tawhidul; Mohamedali, Abidali; Ahn, Seong Beom; Nawar, Ishmam; Baker, Mark S; Ranganathan, Shoba

2017-01-01

In the past decade, proteomics and mass spectrometry have taken tremendous strides forward, particularly in the life sciences, spurred on by rapid advances in technology resulting in generation and conglomeration of vast amounts of data. Though this has led to tremendous advancements in biology, the interpretation of the data poses serious challenges for many practitioners due to the immense size and complexity of the data. Furthermore, the lack of annotation means that a potential gold mine of relevant biological information may be hiding within this data. We present here a simple and intuitive workflow for the research community to investigate and mine this data, not only to extract relevant data but also to segregate usable, quality data to develop hypotheses for investigation and validation. We apply an MS evidence workflow for verifying peptides of proteins from one's own data as well as publicly available databases. We then integrate a suite of freely available bioinformatics analysis and annotation software tools to identify homologues and map putative functional signatures, gene ontology and biochemical pathways. We also provide an example of the functional annotation of missing proteins in human chromosome 7 data from the NeXtProt database, where no evidence is available at the proteomic, antibody, or structural levels. We give examples of protocols, tools and detailed flowcharts that can be extended or tailored to interpret and annotate the proteome of any novel organism.

Alternative waste residue materials for passive in situ prevention of sulfide-mine tailings oxidation: a field evaluation.

PubMed

Nason, Peter; Johnson, Raymond H; Neuschütz, Clara; Alakangas, Lena; Öhlander, Björn

2014-02-28

Novel solutions for sulfide-mine tailings remediation were evaluated in field-scale experiments on a former tailings repository in northern Sweden. Uncovered sulfide-tailings were compared to sewage-sludge biosolid amended tailings over 2 years. An application of a 0.2m single-layer sewage-sludge amendment was unsuccessful at preventing oxygen ingress to underlying tailings. It merely slowed the sulfide-oxidation rate by 20%. In addition, sludge-derived metals (Cu, Ni, Fe, and Zn) migrated and precipitated at the tailings-to-sludge interface. By using an additional 0.6m thick fly-ash sealing layer underlying the sewage sludge layer, a solution to mitigate oxygen transport to the underlying tailings and minimize sulfide-oxidation was found. The fly-ash acted as a hardened physical barrier that prevented oxygen diffusion and provided a trap for sludge-borne metals. Nevertheless, the biosolid application hampered the application, despite the advances in the effectiveness of the fly-ash layer, as sludge-borne nitrate leached through the cover system into the underlying tailings, oxidizing pyrite. This created a 0.3m deep oxidized zone in 6-years. This study highlights that using sewage sludge in unconventional cover systems is not always a practical solution for the remediation of sulfide-bearing mine tailings to mitigate against sulfide weathering and acid rock drainage formation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Wasatch Plateau coal field, Utah

USGS Publications Warehouse

Spieker, Edmund M.

1931-01-01

The Wasatch Plateau, the northeasternmost of the great group of high plateaus in central and southern Utah, is underlain by a succession of Cretaceous rocks that, contain valuable coal beds, and the eastern part of the plateau, in which the coal is accessible, is generally known as the Wasatch Plateau coal field. This field and its continuation east of Price River the Book Cliffs coal field contain excellent coal of bituminous rank and together form the largest and most productive coal area in Utah. Coal from these fields has long been highly esteemed by users of western fuels and commands an important position in the fuel markets of the West.Mining of the coal began in a small way with the earliest settlements in this part of Utah. As population increased and transcontinental railroads were built, large mines were, opened and commercial development has advanced until at the present time most of the places accessible by existing railroads are the scenes of large mining enterprises, and the volume of coal passing out to the fuel-consuming centers of the West has reached an annual average of about 4,800,000 tons. The area now undergoing exploitation, however, is small compared with the part yet undeveloped, and the present examination of the field has shown clearly that the great bulk of its coal remains, constituting a reserve of many millions of tons.

Finalizing the Libby Action Plan Research Program | Science ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Libby, Montana is the location of a former vermiculite mine that operated from 1923 to 1990. The vermiculite ore from the mine co-existed with amphibole asbestos, referred to as Libby Amphibole Asbestos (LAA). Combined with the cessation of the asbestos mining and processing operations, there has been significant progress in reducing the exposure to LAA in Libby, Montana. In 2009, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) declared a public health emergency in Libby due to observed asbestos-related health effects in the region. As part of this effort, the EPA led a cross-agency research program that conducted analytical, toxicological, and epidemiological research on the health effects of asbestos at the Libby Asbestos Superfund Site (Libby Site) in Libby, Montana. The Libby Action Plan (LAP) was initiated in 2007 to support the site-specific risk assessment for the Libby Site. The goal of the LAP research program was to explore the health effects of LAA, and determine toxicity information specific to LAA in order to accurately inform a human health risk assessment at the Libby Site. LAP research informed data gaps related to the health effects of exposure to LAA, particularly related to specific mechanisms of fiber dosimetry and toxicity (e.g., inflammatory responses), as well as investigated disease progression in exposed populations and advanced asbestos analytical techniques. This work incl

The ManureEcoMine pilot installation: advanced integration of technologies for the management of organics and nutrients in livestock waste.

PubMed

Pintucci, Cristina; Carballa, Marta; Varga, Sam; Sarli, Jimena; Peng, Lai; Bousek, Johannes; Pedizzi, Chiara; Ruscalleda, Maël; Tarragó, Elena; Prat, Delphine; Colica, Giovanni; Picavet, Merijn; Colsen, Joop; Benito, Oscar; Balaguer, Marilos; Puig, Sebastià; Lema, Juan M; Colprim, Jesús; Fuchs, Werner; Vlaeminck, Siegfried E

2017-03-01

Manure represents an exquisite mining opportunity for nutrient recovery (nitrogen and phosphorus), and for their reuse as renewable fertilisers. The ManureEcoMine proposes an integrated approach of technologies, operated in a pilot-scale installation treating swine manure (83.7%) and Ecofrit ® (16.3%), a mix of vegetable residues. Thermophilic anaerobic digestion was performed for 150 days, the final organic loading rate was 4.6 kgCOD m -3 d -1 , with a biogas production rate of 1.4 Nm 3 m -3 d -1 . The digester was coupled to an ammonia side-stream stripping column and a scrubbing unit for free ammonia inhibition reduction in the digester, and nitrogen recovery as ammonium sulphate. The stripped digestate was recirculated daily in the digester for 15 days (68% of the digester volume), increasing the gas production rate by 27%. Following a decanter centrifuge, the digestate liquid fraction was treated with an ultrafiltration membrane. The filtrate was fed into a struvite reactor, with a phosphorus recovery efficiency of 83% (as orthophosphate). Acidification of digestate could increment the soluble orthophosphate concentration up to four times, enhancing phosphorus enrichment in the liquid fraction and its recovery via struvite. A synergistic combination of manure processing steps was demonstrated to be technologically feasible to upgrade livestock waste into refined, concentrated fertilisers.

DDMGD: the database of text-mined associations between genes methylated in diseases from different species.

PubMed

Bin Raies, Arwa; Mansour, Hicham; Incitti, Roberto; Bajic, Vladimir B

2015-01-01

Gathering information about associations between methylated genes and diseases is important for diseases diagnosis and treatment decisions. Recent advancements in epigenetics research allow for large-scale discoveries of associations of genes methylated in diseases in different species. Searching manually for such information is not easy, as it is scattered across a large number of electronic publications and repositories. Therefore, we developed DDMGD database (http://www.cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/ddmgd/) to provide a comprehensive repository of information related to genes methylated in diseases that can be found through text mining. DDMGD's scope is not limited to a particular group of genes, diseases or species. Using the text mining system DEMGD we developed earlier and additional post-processing, we extracted associations of genes methylated in different diseases from PubMed Central articles and PubMed abstracts. The accuracy of extracted associations is 82% as estimated on 2500 hand-curated entries. DDMGD provides a user-friendly interface facilitating retrieval of these associations ranked according to confidence scores. Submission of new associations to DDMGD is provided. A comparison analysis of DDMGD with several other databases focused on genes methylated in diseases shows that DDMGD is comprehensive and includes most of the recent information on genes methylated in diseases. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

A new dawn for buried garbage? An investigation of the marketability of previously disposed shredder waste.

PubMed

Johansson, N; Krook, J; Frändegård, P

2017-02-01

This paper examines the market potential of disposed shredder waste, a resource that is increasingly emphasized as a future mine. A framework with gate requirements of various outlets was developed and contrasted with a pilot project focusing on excavated waste from a shredder landfill, sorted in an advanced recycling facility. Only the smallest fraction by percentage had an outlet, the metals (8%), which were sold according to a lower quality class. The other fractions (92%) were not accepted for incineration, as construction materials or even for re-deposition. Previous studies have shown similar lack of marketability. This means that even if one fraction can be recovered, the outlet of the other material is often unpredictable, resulting in a waste disposal problem, which easily prevents a landfill mining project altogether. This calls for marketability and usability of deposited waste to become a central issue for landfill mining research. The paper concludes by discussing how concerned actors can enhance the marketability, for example by pre-treating the disposed waste to acclimatize it to existing sorting methods. However, for concerned actors to become interested in approaching unconventional resources such as deposited waste, greater regulatory flexibility is needed in which, for example, re-deposition could be allowed as long as the environmental benefits of the projects outweigh the disadvantages. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Data mining of mental health issues of non-bone marrow donor siblings.

PubMed

Takita, Morihito; Tanaka, Yuji; Kodama, Yuko; Murashige, Naoko; Hatanaka, Nobuyo; Kishi, Yukiko; Matsumura, Tomoko; Ohsawa, Yukio; Kami, Masahiro

2011-07-20

Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a curative treatment for patients with advanced hematologic malignancies. However, the long-term mental health issues of siblings who were not selected as donors (non-donor siblings, NDS) in the transplantation have not been well assessed. Data mining is useful in discovering new findings from a large, multidisciplinary data set and the Scenario Map analysis is a novel approach which allows extracting keywords linking different conditions/events from text data of interviews even when the keywords appeared infrequently. The aim of this study is to assess mental health issues on NDSs and to find helpful keywords for the clinical follow-up using a Scenario Map analysis. A 47-year-old woman whose younger sister had undergone allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation 20 years earlier was interviewed as a NDS. The text data from the interview transcriptions was analyzed using Scenario Mapping. Four clusters of words and six keywords were identified. Upon review of the word clusters and keywords, both the subject and researchers noticed that the subject has had mental health issues since the disease onset to date with being a NDS. The issues have been alleviated by her family. This single subject study suggested the advantages of data mining in clinical follow-up for mental health issues of patients and/or their families.

Alternative waste residue materials for passive in situ prevention of sulfide-mine tailings oxidation: A field evaluation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nason, Peter; Johnson, Raymond H.; Neuschutz, Clara; Alakangas, Lena; Ohlander, Bjorn

2014-01-01

Novel solutions for sulfide-mine tailings remediation were evaluated in field-scale experiments on a former tailings repository in northern Sweden. Uncovered sulfide-tailings were compared to sewage-sludge biosolid amended tailings over 2 years. An application of a 0.2 m single-layer sewage-sludge amendment was unsuccessful at preventing oxygen ingress to underlying tailings. It merely slowed the sulfide-oxidation rate by 20%. In addition, sludge-derived metals (Cu, Ni, Fe, and Zn) migrated and precipitated at the tailings-to-sludge interface. By using an additional 0.6 m thick fly-ash sealing layer underlying the sewage sludge layer, a solution to mitigate oxygen transport to the underlying tailings and minimize sulfide-oxidation was found. The fly-ash acted as a hardened physical barrier that prevented oxygen diffusion and provided a trap for sludge-borne metals. Nevertheless, the biosolid application hampered the application, despite the advances in the effectiveness of the fly-ash layer, as sludge-borne nitrate leached through the cover system into the underlying tailings, oxidizing pyrite. This created a 0.3 m deep oxidized zone in 6-years. This study highlights that using sewage sludge in unconventional cover systems is not always a practical solution for the remediation of sulfide-bearing mine tailings to mitigate against sulfide weathering and acid rock drainage formation.

Estimating instream constituent loads using replicate synoptic sampling, Peru Creek, Colorado

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Runkel, Robert L.; Walton-Day, Katherine; Kimball, Briant A.; Verplanck, Philip L.; Nimick, David A.

2013-05-01

SummaryThe synoptic mass balance approach is often used to evaluate constituent mass loading in streams affected by mine drainage. Spatial profiles of constituent mass load are used to identify sources of contamination and prioritize sites for remedial action. This paper presents a field scale study in which replicate synoptic sampling campaigns are used to quantify the aggregate uncertainty in constituent load that arises from (1) laboratory analyses of constituent and tracer concentrations, (2) field sampling error, and (3) temporal variation in concentration from diel constituent cycles and/or source variation. Consideration of these factors represents an advance in the application of the synoptic mass balance approach by placing error bars on estimates of constituent load and by allowing all sources of uncertainty to be quantified in aggregate; previous applications of the approach have provided only point estimates of constituent load and considered only a subset of the possible errors. Given estimates of aggregate uncertainty, site specific data and expert judgement may be used to qualitatively assess the contributions of individual factors to uncertainty. This assessment can be used to guide the collection of additional data to reduce uncertainty. Further, error bars provided by the replicate approach can aid the investigator in the interpretation of spatial loading profiles and the subsequent identification of constituent source areas within the watershed. The replicate sampling approach is applied to Peru Creek, a stream receiving acidic, metal-rich effluent from the Pennsylvania Mine. Other sources of acidity and metals within the study reach include a wetland area adjacent to the mine and tributary inflow from Cinnamon Gulch. Analysis of data collected under low-flow conditions indicates that concentrations of Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn in Peru Creek exceed aquatic life standards. Constituent loading within the study reach is dominated by effluent from the Pennsylvania Mine, with over 50% of the Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn loads attributable to a collapsed adit near the top of the study reach. These estimates of mass load may underestimate the effect of the Pennsylvania Mine as leakage from underground mine workings may contribute to metal loads that are currently attributed to the wetland area. This potential leakage confounds the evaluation of remedial options and additional research is needed to determine the magnitude and location of the leakage.

Lunabotics Mining Competition: Inspiration Through Accomplishment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mueller, Robert P.

2011-01-01

NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition is designed to promote the development of interest in space activities and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. The competition uses excavation, a necessary first step towards extracting resources from the regolith and building bases on the moon. The unique physical properties of lunar regolith and the reduced 1/6th gravity, vacuum environment make excavation a difficult technical challenge. Advances in lunar regolith mining have the potential to significantly contribute to our nation's space vision and NASA space exploration operations. The competition is conducted annually by NASA at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The teams that can use telerobotic or autonomous operation to excavate a lunar regolith geotechnical simulant, herein after referred to as Black Point-1 (or BP-1) and score the most points (calculated as an average of two separate 10-minute timed competition attempts) will eam points towards the Joe Kosmo Award for Excellence and the scores will reflect ranking in the on-site mining category of the competition. The minimum excavation requirement is 10.0 kg during each competition attempt and the robotic excavator, referred to as the "Lunabot", must meet all specifications. This paper will review the achievements of the Lunabotics Mining Competition in 2010 and 2011, and present the new rules for 2012. By providing a framework for robotic design and fabrication, which culminates in a live competition event, university students have been able to produce sophisticated lunabots which are tele-operated. Multi-disciplinary teams are encouraged and the extreme sense of accomplishment provides a unique source of inspiration to the participating students, which has been shown to translate into increased interest in STEM careers. Our industrial sponsors (Caterpillar, Newmont Mining, Harris, Honeybee Robotics) have all stated that there is a strong need for skills in the workforce related to robotics and automated machines. In 2010, 22 United States (US) universities competed, and in May 2011 the competition was opened to international participation, with 46 Universities attending. There were 12 international teams and 34 US teams. This combined total directly inspired an estimated 544 university students. More students and the public were engaged via internet broadcasting and social networking media. This is expected to be of value for actual future space missions, as knowledge is gained from testing many innovative prototypes in simulated lunar regolith. More information is available at www.nasa.gov/lunabotics/.

A Testbed Demonstration of an Intelligent Archive in a Knowledge Building System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ramapriyan, Hampapuram; Isaac, David; Morse, Steve; Yang, Wenli; Bonnlander, Brian; McConaughy, Gail; Di, Liping; Danks, David

2005-01-01

The last decade's influx of raw data and derived geophysical parameters from several Earth observing satellites to NASA data centers has created a data-rich environment for Earth science research and applications. While advances in hardware and information management have made it possible to archive petabytes of data and distribute terabytes of data daily to a broad community of users, further progress is necessary in the transformation of data into information, and information into knowledge that can be used in particular applications in order to realize the full potential of these valuable datasets. In examining what is needed to enable this progress in the data provider environment that exists today and is expected to evolve in the next several years, we arrived at the concept of an Intelligent Archive in context of a Knowledge Building System (IA/KBS). Our prior work and associated papers investigated usage scenarios, required capabilities, system architecture, data volume issues, and supporting technologies. We identified six key capabilities of an IA/KBS: Virtual Product Generation, Significant Event Detection, Automated Data Quality Assessment, Large-Scale Data Mining, Dynamic Feedback Loop, and Data Discovery and Efficient Requesting. Among these capabilities, large-scale data mining is perceived by many in the community to be an area of technical risk. One of the main reasons for this is that standard data mining research and algorithms operate on datasets that are several orders of magnitude smaller than the actual sizes of datasets maintained by realistic earth science data archives. Therefore, we defined a test-bed activity to implement a large-scale data mining algorithm in a pseudo-operational scale environment and to examine any issues involved. The application chosen for applying the data mining algorithm is wildfire prediction over the continental U.S. This paper reports a number of observations based on our experience with this test-bed. While proof-of-concept for data mining scalability and utility has been a major goal for the research reported here, it was not the only one. The other five capabilities of an WKBS named above have been considered as well, and an assessment of the implications of our experience for these other areas will also be presented. The lessons learned through the testbed effort and presented in this paper will benefit technologists, scientists, and system operators as they consider introducing IA/KBS capabilities into production systems.

Estimating instream constituent loads using replicate synoptic sampling, Peru Creek, Colorado

USGS Publications Warehouse

Runkel, Robert L.; Walton-Day, Katherine; Kimball, Briant A.; Verplanck, Philip L.; Nimick, David A.

2013-01-01

The synoptic mass balance approach is often used to evaluate constituent mass loading in streams affected by mine drainage. Spatial profiles of constituent mass load are used to identify sources of contamination and prioritize sites for remedial action. This paper presents a field scale study in which replicate synoptic sampling campaigns are used to quantify the aggregate uncertainty in constituent load that arises from (1) laboratory analyses of constituent and tracer concentrations, (2) field sampling error, and (3) temporal variation in concentration from diel constituent cycles and/or source variation. Consideration of these factors represents an advance in the application of the synoptic mass balance approach by placing error bars on estimates of constituent load and by allowing all sources of uncertainty to be quantified in aggregate; previous applications of the approach have provided only point estimates of constituent load and considered only a subset of the possible errors. Given estimates of aggregate uncertainty, site specific data and expert judgement may be used to qualitatively assess the contributions of individual factors to uncertainty. This assessment can be used to guide the collection of additional data to reduce uncertainty. Further, error bars provided by the replicate approach can aid the investigator in the interpretation of spatial loading profiles and the subsequent identification of constituent source areas within the watershed.The replicate sampling approach is applied to Peru Creek, a stream receiving acidic, metal-rich effluent from the Pennsylvania Mine. Other sources of acidity and metals within the study reach include a wetland area adjacent to the mine and tributary inflow from Cinnamon Gulch. Analysis of data collected under low-flow conditions indicates that concentrations of Al, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn in Peru Creek exceed aquatic life standards. Constituent loading within the study reach is dominated by effluent from the Pennsylvania Mine, with over 50% of the Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn loads attributable to a collapsed adit near the top of the study reach. These estimates of mass load may underestimate the effect of the Pennsylvania Mine as leakage from underground mine workings may contribute to metal loads that are currently attributed to the wetland area. This potential leakage confounds the evaluation of remedial options and additional research is needed to determine the magnitude and location of the leakage.

Mars Molniya Orbit Atmospheric Resource Mining. [FY 16 NIAC Phase I Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mueller, Robert P.; Sforzo, Brandon; Braun, Robert D.; Sibille, Laurent

2017-01-01

This NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I study examined the revolutionary concept of performing resource collection and utilization during Mars orbital operations in order to enable the landing of large payloads. An exploration architecture was developed, out of which several mission alternatives were developed. Concepts of operations were then developed for each mission alternative, followed by concepts for spacecraft systems, which were traded to assess their feasibility. A novel architecture using Mars Molniya Orbit Atmospheric Resource Mining is feasible to enable an Earth-independent and pioneering, permanent human presence on Mars by providing a reusable, single-stage-to-orbit transportation system. This will allow cargo and crew to be routinely delivered to and from Mars without transporting propellants from Earth.In Phase I, our study explored how electrical energy could be harnessed from the kinetic energy of the incoming spacecraft and then be used to produce the oxygen necessary for landing. This concept of operations is revolutionary in that its focus is on using in situ resources in complementary and varied forms: the upper atmosphere of Mars is used for aerocapture, which is followed by aerobraking, the kinetic energy of the spacecraft is transformed into usable electrical energy during aerobraking, and the atmospheric composition is the source of oxidizer for a landing under supersonic retropropulsion. This NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I study explores a novel mission architecture to establish routine, Earth-independent transfer of large mass payloads between Earth and the Mars surface and back to Mars orbit. The first stage of routine mission operations involves an atmospheric resource mining aerobraking campaign following aerocapture into a highly elliptical Mars orbit. During each pass through the atmosphere, the vehicle ingests the atmospheric oxidizer and stores it onboard, using solid oxide electrolysis to convert the primarily CO2 atmosphere into usable O2 for propellant. Power is made available through the use of magnetohydrodynamic energy generation, which converts the motion of the plasma in the shock later into usable electrical energy. Upon termination of the aerobraking sequence, the descent vehicle detaches from the orbit stack, deorbits, and executes the entry, descent, and landing sequence. Hypersonic deceleration is achieved via a deployable heat shield to lower the vehicle ballistic coefficient, and supersonic and subsonic deceleration are achieved via retropropulsion. Mars surface operations involve resource mining of the Martian regolith to produce CH4 and O2 propellant to be used for the subsequent MDAV ascent back to high Mars orbit (HMO) providing an apoapsis raise maneuver to initialize the aerobraking sequence, in addition to providing fuel from the Mars surface for EDL propulsive descent. The Resource Collector Vehicle (RCV), which is used for the orbital mining operations, is raised back to HMO via onboard deployable augmented solar electric propulsion. Concepts of operations were developed for each mission alternative, to evaluate between them and assess feasibility.

Text-mining analysis of mHealth research.

PubMed

Ozaydin, Bunyamin; Zengul, Ferhat; Oner, Nurettin; Delen, Dursun

2017-01-01

In recent years, because of the advancements in communication and networking technologies, mobile technologies have been developing at an unprecedented rate. mHealth, the use of mobile technologies in medicine, and the related research has also surged parallel to these technological advancements. Although there have been several attempts to review mHealth research through manual processes such as systematic reviews, the sheer magnitude of the number of studies published in recent years makes this task very challenging. The most recent developments in machine learning and text mining offer some potential solutions to address this challenge by allowing analyses of large volumes of texts through semi-automated processes. The objective of this study is to analyze the evolution of mHealth research by utilizing text-mining and natural language processing (NLP) analyses. The study sample included abstracts of 5,644 mHealth research articles, which were gathered from five academic search engines by using search terms such as mobile health, and mHealth. The analysis used the Text Explorer module of JMP Pro 13 and an iterative semi-automated process involving tokenizing, phrasing, and terming. After developing the document term matrix (DTM) analyses such as single value decomposition (SVD), topic, and hierarchical document clustering were performed, along with the topic-informed document clustering approach. The results were presented in the form of word-clouds and trend analyses. There were several major findings regarding research clusters and trends. First, our results confirmed time-dependent nature of terminology use in mHealth research. For example, in earlier versus recent years the use of terminology changed from "mobile phone" to "smartphone" and from "applications" to "apps". Second, ten clusters for mHealth research were identified including (I) Clinical Research on Lifestyle Management, (II) Community Health, (III) Literature Review, (IV) Medical Interventions, (V) Research Design, (VI) Infrastructure, (VII) Applications, (VIII) Research and Innovation in Health Technologies, (IX) Sensor-based Devices and Measurement Algorithms, (X) Survey-based Research. Third, the trend analyses indicated the infrastructure cluster as the highest percentage researched area until 2014. The Research and Innovation in Health Technologies cluster experienced the largest increase in numbers of publications in recent years, especially after 2014. This study is unique because it is the only known study utilizing text-mining analyses to reveal the streams and trends for mHealth research. The fast growth in mobile technologies is expected to lead to higher numbers of studies focusing on mHealth and its implications for various healthcare outcomes. Findings of this study can be utilized by researchers in identifying areas for future studies.

Text-mining analysis of mHealth research

PubMed Central

Zengul, Ferhat; Oner, Nurettin; Delen, Dursun

2017-01-01

In recent years, because of the advancements in communication and networking technologies, mobile technologies have been developing at an unprecedented rate. mHealth, the use of mobile technologies in medicine, and the related research has also surged parallel to these technological advancements. Although there have been several attempts to review mHealth research through manual processes such as systematic reviews, the sheer magnitude of the number of studies published in recent years makes this task very challenging. The most recent developments in machine learning and text mining offer some potential solutions to address this challenge by allowing analyses of large volumes of texts through semi-automated processes. The objective of this study is to analyze the evolution of mHealth research by utilizing text-mining and natural language processing (NLP) analyses. The study sample included abstracts of 5,644 mHealth research articles, which were gathered from five academic search engines by using search terms such as mobile health, and mHealth. The analysis used the Text Explorer module of JMP Pro 13 and an iterative semi-automated process involving tokenizing, phrasing, and terming. After developing the document term matrix (DTM) analyses such as single value decomposition (SVD), topic, and hierarchical document clustering were performed, along with the topic-informed document clustering approach. The results were presented in the form of word-clouds and trend analyses. There were several major findings regarding research clusters and trends. First, our results confirmed time-dependent nature of terminology use in mHealth research. For example, in earlier versus recent years the use of terminology changed from “mobile phone” to “smartphone” and from “applications” to “apps”. Second, ten clusters for mHealth research were identified including (I) Clinical Research on Lifestyle Management, (II) Community Health, (III) Literature Review, (IV) Medical Interventions, (V) Research Design, (VI) Infrastructure, (VII) Applications, (VIII) Research and Innovation in Health Technologies, (IX) Sensor-based Devices and Measurement Algorithms, (X) Survey-based Research. Third, the trend analyses indicated the infrastructure cluster as the highest percentage researched area until 2014. The Research and Innovation in Health Technologies cluster experienced the largest increase in numbers of publications in recent years, especially after 2014. This study is unique because it is the only known study utilizing text-mining analyses to reveal the streams and trends for mHealth research. The fast growth in mobile technologies is expected to lead to higher numbers of studies focusing on mHealth and its implications for various healthcare outcomes. Findings of this study can be utilized by researchers in identifying areas for future studies. PMID:29430456

Addressing fundamental architectural challenges of an activity-based intelligence and advanced analytics (ABIAA) system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yager, Kevin; Albert, Thomas; Brower, Bernard V.; Pellechia, Matthew F.

2015-06-01

The domain of Geospatial Intelligence Analysis is rapidly shifting toward a new paradigm of Activity Based Intelligence (ABI) and information-based Tipping and Cueing. General requirements for an advanced ABIAA system present significant challenges in architectural design, computing resources, data volumes, workflow efficiency, data mining and analysis algorithms, and database structures. These sophisticated ABI software systems must include advanced algorithms that automatically flag activities of interest in less time and within larger data volumes than can be processed by human analysts. In doing this, they must also maintain the geospatial accuracy necessary for cross-correlation of multi-intelligence data sources. Historically, serial architectural workflows have been employed in ABIAA system design for tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, and dissemination. These simpler architectures may produce implementations that solve short term requirements; however, they have serious limitations that preclude them from being used effectively in an automated ABIAA system with multiple data sources. This paper discusses modern ABIAA architectural considerations providing an overview of an advanced ABIAA system and comparisons to legacy systems. It concludes with a recommended strategy and incremental approach to the research, development, and construction of a fully automated ABIAA system.

Advanced Molecular Surveillance of Hepatitis C Virus

PubMed Central

Gonçalves Rossi, Livia Maria; Escobar-Gutierrez, Alejandro; Rahal, Paula

2015-01-01

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is an important public health problem worldwide. HCV exploits complex molecular mechanisms, which result in a high degree of intrahost genetic heterogeneity. This high degree of variability represents a challenge for the accurate establishment of genetic relatedness between cases and complicates the identification of sources of infection. Tracking HCV infections is crucial for the elucidation of routes of transmission in a variety of settings. Therefore, implementation of HCV advanced molecular surveillance (AMS) is essential for disease control. Accounting for virulence is also important for HCV AMS and both viral and host factors contribute to the disease outcome. Therefore, HCV AMS requires the incorporation of host factors as an integral component of the algorithms used to monitor disease occurrence. Importantly, implementation of comprehensive global databases and data mining are also needed for the proper study of the mechanisms responsible for HCV transmission. Here, we review molecular aspects associated with HCV transmission, as well as the most recent technological advances used for virus and host characterization. Additionally, the cornerstone discoveries that have defined the pathway for viral characterization are presented and the importance of implementing advanced HCV molecular surveillance is highlighted. PMID:25781918

Novel opportunities for computational biology and sociology in drug discovery

PubMed Central

Yao, Lixia

2009-01-01

Drug discovery today is impossible without sophisticated modeling and computation. In this review we touch on previous advances in computational biology and by tracing the steps involved in pharmaceutical development, we explore a range of novel, high value opportunities for computational innovation in modeling the biological process of disease and the social process of drug discovery. These opportunities include text mining for new drug leads, modeling molecular pathways and predicting the efficacy of drug cocktails, analyzing genetic overlap between diseases and predicting alternative drug use. Computation can also be used to model research teams and innovative regions and to estimate the value of academy-industry ties for scientific and human benefit. Attention to these opportunities could promise punctuated advance, and will complement the well-established computational work on which drug discovery currently relies. PMID:19674801

[Recent advances in metabonomics].

PubMed

Xu, Guo-Wang; Lu, Xin; Yang, Sheng-Li

2007-12-01

Metabonomics (or metabolomics) aims at the comprehensive and quantitative analysis of the wide arrays of metabolites in biological samples. Metabonomics has been labeled as one of the new" -omics" joining genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics as a science employed toward the understanding of global systems biology. It has been widely applied in many research areas including drug toxicology, biomarker discovery, functional genomics, and molecular pathology etc. The comprehensive analysis of the metabonome is particularly challenging due to the diverse chemical natures of metabolites. Metabonomics investigations require special approaches for sample preparation, data-rich analytical chemical measurements, and information mining. The outputs from a metabonomics study allow sample classification, biomarker discovery, and interpretation of the reasons for classification information. This review focuses on the currently new advances in various technical platforms of metabonomics and its applications in drug discovery and development, disease biomarker identification, plant and microbe related fields.

Comparative decision models for anticipating shortage of food grain production in India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chattopadhyay, Manojit; Mitra, Subrata Kumar

2018-01-01

This paper attempts to predict food shortages in advance from the analysis of rainfall during the monsoon months along with other inputs used for crop production, such as land used for cereal production, percentage of area covered under irrigation and fertiliser use. We used six binary classification data mining models viz., logistic regression, Multilayer Perceptron, kernel lab-Support Vector Machines, linear discriminant analysis, quadratic discriminant analysis and k-Nearest Neighbors Network, and found that linear discriminant analysis and kernel lab-Support Vector Machines are equally suitable for predicting per capita food shortage with 89.69 % accuracy in overall prediction and 92.06 % accuracy in predicting food shortage ( true negative rate). Advance information of food shortage can help policy makers to take remedial measures in order to prevent devastating consequences arising out of food non-availability.

Systems Medicine: The Future of Medical Genomics, Healthcare, and Wellness.

PubMed

Saqi, Mansoor; Pellet, Johann; Roznovat, Irina; Mazein, Alexander; Ballereau, Stéphane; De Meulder, Bertrand; Auffray, Charles

2016-01-01

Recent advances in genomics have led to the rapid and relatively inexpensive collection of patient molecular data including multiple types of omics data. The integration of these data with clinical measurements has the potential to impact on our understanding of the molecular basis of disease and on disease management. Systems medicine is an approach to understanding disease through an integration of large patient datasets. It offers the possibility for personalized strategies for healthcare through the development of a new taxonomy of disease. Advanced computing will be an important component in effectively implementing systems medicine. In this chapter we describe three computational challenges associated with systems medicine: disease subtype discovery using integrated datasets, obtaining a mechanistic understanding of disease, and the development of an informatics platform for the mining, analysis, and visualization of data emerging from translational medicine studies.

Advances in bioleaching for recovery of metals and bioremediation of fuel ash and sewage sludge.

PubMed

Gu, Tingyue; Rastegar, Seyed Omid; Mousavi, Seyyed Mohammad; Li, Ming; Zhou, Minghua

2018-08-01

Bioleaching has been successfully used in commercial metal mining for decades. It uses microbes to biosolubilize metal-containing inorganic compounds such as metal oxides and sulfides. There is a growing interest in using bioleaching for bioremediation of solid wastes by removing heavy metals from ash and sewage sludge. This review presents the state of the art in bioleaching research for recovery of metals and bioremediation of solid wastes. Various process parameters such as reaction time, pH, temperature, mass transfer rate, nutrient requirement, pulp density and particle size are discussed. Selections of more effective microbes are assessed. Pretreatment methods that enhance bioleaching are also discussed. Critical issues in bioreactor scale-up are analyzed. The potential impact of advances in biofilm and microbiome is explained. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Understanding Contaminants Associated with Mineral Deposits

USGS Publications Warehouse

Verplanck, Philip L.

2008-01-01

Interdisciplinary studies by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have resulted in substantial progress in understanding the processes that control *the release of metals and acidic water from inactive mines and mineralized areas, *the transport of metals and acidic water to streams, and *the fate and effect of metals and acidity on downstream ecosystems. The potential environmental effects associated with abandoned and inactive mines, resulting from the complex interaction of a variety of chemical and physical processes, is an area of study that is important to the USGS Mineral Resources Program. Understanding the processes contributing to the environmental effects of abandoned and inactive mines is also of interest to a wide range of stakeholders, including both those responsible for managing lands with historically mined areas and those responsible for anticipating environmental consequences of future mining operations. The recently completed (2007) USGS project entitled 'Process Studies of Contaminants Associated with Mineral Deposits' focused on abandoned and inactive mines and mineralized areas in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona, where there are thousands of abandoned mines. Results from these studies provide new information that advances our understanding of the physical and biogeochemical processes causing the mobilization, transport, reaction, and fate of potentially toxic elements (including aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, copper, iron, lead, and zinc) in mineralized near-surface systems and their effects on aquatic and riparian habitat. These interdisciplinary studies provide the basis for scientific decisionmaking and remedial action by local, State, and Federal agencies charged with minimizing the effects of potentially toxic elements on the environment. Current (2007) USGS research highlights the need to understand (1) the geologic sources of metals and acidity and the geochemical reactions that release them from their sources, (2) the pathways that facilitate transport from those sources, and (3) the processes that control the fate of the elements once released from the sources. Experts in the fields of economic geology, structural geology, mineralogy, geophysics, geochemistry, hydrology, ground-water modeling, microbiology, and toxicology came together for a series of studies that address these relationships on scales ranging from the microscopic to the watershed. This Circular presents results and highlights from the detailed, interdisciplinary studies that include investigations in both mining-affected areas and mineralized but unmined areas. The first section of the Circular describes laboratory and site-scale field investigations that primarily focus on mineralogic and biologic controls on the source and release of metals and acidity from mine-waste rock and hydrothermally altered areas. The second section describes a set of basin- to watershed-scale studies that not only investigate the source and release of metals and acidity but also the transport of these constituents away from the source areas. The third section is a summary of results from postremediation ecosystem monitoring. For more information on these and other project-related studies, please visit the project Web site at http://minerals.cr.usgs.gov/projects/contaminants/index.html. The Web site includes a complete bibliography and detailed descriptions of each interdisciplinary study.

Liquid Loss From Advancing Aqueous Foams With Very Low Water Content

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-01-14

fractionation used by pharmaceutical and food industries for protein separation, and froth flotation used by the mining industry for mineral separation...SureShotsSprayer.com) onto a copper screen with a diameter of 6.4 cm and 30x30 mesh cells per inch (40.8% open area) held in place by a rubber gasket. The N2 pressure...distribution over the copper screen. Air flow rates of 8 L/min and 20 L/min, as determined by a mass-flow controller (Sierra Control Flo-Box Model

Advanced Technology: It's Available at JPL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Edberg, James R.

1996-01-01

Non-NASA activities at JPL are the province of the JPL Technology and Applications Programs Directorate, and include working relationships with industry, academia, and other government agencies. Within this Directorate, the JPL Undersea Technology Program endeavors to apply and transfer these capabilities to the area of underwater research and operations. Of particular interest may be a Reversed Electron Attachment Detector (READ). It is a man-portable device capabable of unambiguous detection of unique chemical signatures associated with mines. In addition, there are other JPL technologies which merit investigation for marine applications.

The PeptideAtlas Project.

PubMed

Deutsch, Eric W

2010-01-01

PeptideAtlas is a multi-species compendium of peptides observed with tandem mass spectrometry methods. Raw mass spectrometer output files are collected from the community and reprocessed through a uniform analysis and validation pipeline that continues to advance. The results are loaded into a database and the information derived from the raw data is returned to the community via several web-based data exploration tools. The PeptideAtlas resource is useful for experiment planning, improving genome annotation, and other data mining projects. PeptideAtlas has become especially useful for planning targeted proteomics experiments.

Human movement activity classification approaches that use wearable sensors and mobile devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaghyan, Sahak; Sarukhanyan, Hakob; Akopian, David

2013-03-01

Cell phones and other mobile devices become part of human culture and change activity and lifestyle patterns. Mobile phone technology continuously evolves and incorporates more and more sensors for enabling advanced applications. Latest generations of smart phones incorporate GPS and WLAN location finding modules, vision cameras, microphones, accelerometers, temperature sensors etc. The availability of these sensors in mass-market communication devices creates exciting new opportunities for data mining applications. Particularly healthcare applications exploiting build-in sensors are very promising. This paper reviews different approaches of human activity recognition.

Summary of Global Ozone Measurements Collected from Field Campaigns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aguilera, J.; Salazar, V.

2013-12-01

The goal of the NCAR Earth Observing Laboratory data services is to advance science through delivering high-quality project data and meta data in ways that are as transparent, secure, and easily accessible as possible. By using EOL's existing infrastructure and applying data mining techniques, we explored global ozone measurements collected during EOL supported airborne field campaigns. This study highlights ozone concentrations addressing a diverse set of science objectives, and how these timed measurements contribute to the understanding of the state of the atmosphere and evolution of the different measuring techniques.

The Necessity of Public Relations for Sustainable Mining Activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Hyunbock; Ji, Sangwoo

2015-04-01

This paper reports research about the necessity of image making for sustainable mine developments in the Republic of Korea. One of the big risks in mining activities is mining area residents opposing mine developments and operations. Analysis of the media reports on disputes between mining companies and residents can determine causes of opposing mine developments, dispute process, and influences of disputes on processes of mining projects. To do this, civil complaints from 2009 to 2012 and 24 media reports since 2000 on opposing mining activities are analyzed. And, to analyze difficulties of mining companies, the survey is conducted to target to mining companies. 57 representatives of mining companies are participated in the survey. The result of analysis cited that the major reasons of anti-mining activities are environmental degradation and reduced agricultural productivity. And specifically because of water pollution (50%), crop damages (33%), and mining dust pollution (21%), communities of mining area are against mine developments and operations. However, 25% of residents have experience of the damage caused by mining activities and the remaining 75% of residents opposing mining activities simply have anxiety about mining pollution. In the past, construction-oriented, environment-unfriendly mining projects had lasted. And while mine reclamation had been postponed in abandoned mines, mining area residents had suffered from mining pollution. So, mining area residents are highly influenced by the prejudice that mining activities are harmful to mining area communities. Current mining projects in South Korea, unlike the past mining activity, focus on minimizing environmental damage and contributing to mining area communities financially. But, in many case of disputes between mining companies and mining area residents, the both cannot reach an agreements because of the negative prejudice. Moreover, some communities categorically refuse any mining activity. On the other hand, in the survey to determine what the greatest difficulties of the current mining activities, 54% of mining companies chose environmental regulations, 26% of mining companies chose conflicts between mine area residents and mining companies. Environmental regulations are may defined as the greatest difficulty of current mining activities. But most of environmental regulation's problems are caused by frictions with residents, because all of South Korean mines are very close to villages. So, the biggest difficulty of mining activities can be defined conflicts between residents and mining companies. Moreover, general people in South Korea including some mining engineers recognize the mining industry as a declined and pollution industry. Without clear understanding of mining activities, any mine developments and policies related to mining activities cannot be made by rational discussions. And, if their recognition is not formed in a rational way, it will be turned to extreme fear or blind hatred. Therefore, to understand mining activities correctly, the effective public relations strategy is necessary such as corporate advertisements or public advertisements.

Prior to the Oral Therapy, What Do We Know About HCV-4 in Egypt: A Randomized Survey of Prevalence and Risks Using Data Mining Computed Analysis

PubMed Central

Abd Elrazek, Abd Elrazek; Bilasy, Shymaa E.; Elbanna, Abduh E. M.; Elsherif, Abd Elhalim A.

2014-01-01

Abstract Hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects over 180 million people worldwide and it's the leading cause of chronic liver diseases and hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV is classified into seven major genotypes and a series of subtypes. In general, HCV genotype 4 (HCV-4) is common in the Middle East and Africa, where it is responsible for more than 80% of HCV infections. Although HCV-4 is the cause of approximately 20% of the 180 million cases of chronic hepatitis C worldwide, it has not been a major subject of research yet. The aim of the current study is to survey the morbidities and disease complications among Egyptian population infected with HCV-4 using data mining advanced computing methods mainly and other complementary statistical analysis. Six thousand six hundred sixty subjects, aged between 17 and 58 years old, from different Egyptian Governorates were screened for HCV infection by ELISA and qualitative PCR. HCV-positive patients were further investigated for the incidence of liver cirrhosis and esophageal varices. Obtained data were analyzed by data mining approach. Among 6660 subjects enrolled in this survey, 1018 patients (15.28%) were HCV-positive. Proportion of infected-males was significantly higher than females; 61.6% versus 38.4% (P = 0.0052). Around two-third of infected-patients (635/1018; 62.4%) were presented with liver cirrhosis. Additionally, approximately half of the cirrhotic patients (301/635; 47.4%) showed degrees of large esophageal varices (LEVs), with higher variceal grade observed in males. Age for esophageal variceal development was 47 ± 1. Data mining analysis yielded esophageal wall thickness (>6.5 mm), determined by conventional U/S, as the only independent predictor for esophageal varices. This study emphasizes the high prevalence of HCV infection among Egyptian population, in particular among males. Egyptians with HCV-4 infection are at a higher risk to develop cirrhotic liver and esophageal varices. Data mining, a new analytic technique in medical field, shed light in this study on the clinical importance of esophageal wall thickness as a useful predictor for risky esophageal varices using decision tree algorithm. PMID:25526438

Influence of Geological Structure on Coal and Gas Outburst Occurrences in Turkish Underground Coal Mines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Esen, Olgun; Özer, Samet Can; Fişne, Abdullah

2015-04-01

Coal and gas outbursts are sudden and violent releases of gas and in company with coal that result from a complex function of geology, stress regime with gas pressure and gas content of the coal seam. The phenomena is referred to as instantaneous outbursts and have occurred in virtually all the major coal producing countries and have been the cause of major disasters in the world mining industry. All structures from faults to joints and cleats may supply gas or lead to it draining away. Most geological structures influence the way in which gas can drain within coal seams. From among all the geological factors two groups can be distinguished: parameters characterising directly the occurrence and geometry of the coal seams; parameters characterising the tectonic disturbances of the coal seams and neighbouring rocks. Also dykes may act as gas barriers. When the production of the coal seam is advanced in mine working areas, these barriers are failed mostly in the weak and mylonitized zones. Geology also plays a very important role in the outburst process. Coal seams of complex geological structure including faults, folds, and fractured rocks are liable to outbursts if coal seams and neighbouring rocks have high gas content level. The purpose of the study is to enlighten the coal industry in Turkey to improving mine safety in underground coal production and decrease of coal and gas outburst events due to increasing depth of mining process. In Turkey; the years between 1969 and 2013, the number of 90 coal and gas outbursts took place in Zonguldak Hard Coal Basin in both Kozlu and Karadon Collieries. In this study the liability to coal and gas outburst of the coal seams are investigated by measuring the strength of coal and the rock pressure. The correlation between these measurements and the event locations shows that the geological structures resulted in 52 events out of 90 events; 19 events close to the fault zones, 25 events thorough the fault zones and 8 events in the zones where sudden changes of inclination and/or thickness of the coal seam.

Overview of the gene ontology task at BioCreative IV.

PubMed

Mao, Yuqing; Van Auken, Kimberly; Li, Donghui; Arighi, Cecilia N; McQuilton, Peter; Hayman, G Thomas; Tweedie, Susan; Schaeffer, Mary L; Laulederkind, Stanley J F; Wang, Shur-Jen; Gobeill, Julien; Ruch, Patrick; Luu, Anh Tuan; Kim, Jung-Jae; Chiang, Jung-Hsien; Chen, Yu-De; Yang, Chia-Jung; Liu, Hongfang; Zhu, Dongqing; Li, Yanpeng; Yu, Hong; Emadzadeh, Ehsan; Gonzalez, Graciela; Chen, Jian-Ming; Dai, Hong-Jie; Lu, Zhiyong

2014-01-01

Gene ontology (GO) annotation is a common task among model organism databases (MODs) for capturing gene function data from journal articles. It is a time-consuming and labor-intensive task, and is thus often considered as one of the bottlenecks in literature curation. There is a growing need for semiautomated or fully automated GO curation techniques that will help database curators to rapidly and accurately identify gene function information in full-length articles. Despite multiple attempts in the past, few studies have proven to be useful with regard to assisting real-world GO curation. The shortage of sentence-level training data and opportunities for interaction between text-mining developers and GO curators has limited the advances in algorithm development and corresponding use in practical circumstances. To this end, we organized a text-mining challenge task for literature-based GO annotation in BioCreative IV. More specifically, we developed two subtasks: (i) to automatically locate text passages that contain GO-relevant information (a text retrieval task) and (ii) to automatically identify relevant GO terms for the genes in a given article (a concept-recognition task). With the support from five MODs, we provided teams with >4000 unique text passages that served as the basis for each GO annotation in our task data. Such evidence text information has long been recognized as critical for text-mining algorithm development but was never made available because of the high cost of curation. In total, seven teams participated in the challenge task. From the team results, we conclude that the state of the art in automatically mining GO terms from literature has improved over the past decade while much progress is still needed for computer-assisted GO curation. Future work should focus on addressing remaining technical challenges for improved performance of automatic GO concept recognition and incorporating practical benefits of text-mining tools into real-world GO annotation. http://www.biocreative.org/tasks/biocreative-iv/track-4-GO/. Published by Oxford University Press 2014. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

Physical simulation and theoretical evolution for ground fissures triggered by underground coal mining

PubMed Central

Yu, Xiang; Yang, Yi; Yang, Zeng-Qiang

2018-01-01

Underground coal mining activities are prone to cause movement and breakage in geological strata and also lead to mining subsidence and even ground fissures. Along the direction working panel advancing, ground fissures may occur in roof in front and/or behind working panel. However, the investigations of previous similarity tests in lab only emphasize on the region behind working panel. By improving strata material property in construction and mounting artificial pressure devices, two physical simulation tests were conducted and successfully investigated the simulated results. Then, the mechanical model of “cantilever beam and elastic foundation beam” was proposed to calculate the stress distribution and the crack initiation angle in overlying strata and it well explains the mechanisms of ground fissures generation and propagation. Results show that, the maximum internal force in roof always occurred in front of working panel. However, because the void space in gob due to excavation is large enough to cause the bend and rotation of roof strata, compare to the triaxially compressed region in front of working panel, the roof always broke off at some positions above gob since the stress concentration resulting from such bend and rotation of strata could easily reach the limit strength of strata rocks. Also, the length of cantilever beam changed dynamically as respect to the panel advancing and the breakage intervals. Thus, the breakage position where the internal force first reached the limit tensile strength is not fixed and there will be two different kinds of relative positions between the crack initiation point and the working panel. The crack initiation direction is always perpendicular to the internal force, and the crack propagation direction is affected by the initiation angle, overburden-separation degree and the position of the hydraulic shields. If there is no overburden-separation or less, the roofs will break off as a composite beam and the propagation direction will be roughly along the central line between the initial broken point and the support position. Otherwise, the roof strata will bend with the support shields moving forward, then the fracture angle will be close to the initiation angle and the fault surface will be stepped. PMID:29513703

CANFAR + Skytree: Mining Massive Datasets as an Essential Part of the Future of Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ball, Nicholas M.

2013-01-01

The future study of large astronomical datasets, consisting of hundreds of millions to billions of objects, will be dominated by large computing resources, and by analysis tools of the necessary scalability and sophistication to extract useful information. Significant effort will be required to fulfil their potential as a provider of the next generation of science results. To-date, computing systems have allowed either sophisticated analysis of small datasets, e.g., most astronomy software, or simple analysis of large datasets, e.g., database queries. At the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, we have combined our cloud computing system, the Canadian Advanced Network for Astronomical Research (CANFAR), with the world's most advanced machine learning software, Skytree, to create the world's first cloud computing system for data mining in astronomy. This allows the full sophistication of the huge fields of data mining and machine learning to be applied to the hundreds of millions of objects that make up current large datasets. CANFAR works by utilizing virtual machines, which appear to the user as equivalent to a desktop. Each machine is replicated as desired to perform large-scale parallel processing. Such an arrangement carries far more flexibility than other cloud systems, because it enables the user to immediately install and run the same code that they already utilize for science on their desktop. We demonstrate the utility of the CANFAR + Skytree system by showing science results obtained, including assigning photometric redshifts with full probability density functions (PDFs) to a catalog of approximately 133 million galaxies from the MegaPipe reductions of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Wide and Deep surveys. Each PDF is produced nonparametrically from 100 instances of the photometric parameters for each galaxy, generated by perturbing within the errors on the measurements. Hence, we produce, store, and assign redshifts to, a catalog of over 13 billion object instances. This catalog is comparable in size to those expected from next-generation surveys, such as Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. The CANFAR+Skytree system is open for use by any interested member of the astronomical community.

Physical simulation and theoretical evolution for ground fissures triggered by underground coal mining.

PubMed

Yang, Jing-Hu; Yu, Xiang; Yang, Yi; Yang, Zeng-Qiang

2018-01-01

Underground coal mining activities are prone to cause movement and breakage in geological strata and also lead to mining subsidence and even ground fissures. Along the direction working panel advancing, ground fissures may occur in roof in front and/or behind working panel. However, the investigations of previous similarity tests in lab only emphasize on the region behind working panel. By improving strata material property in construction and mounting artificial pressure devices, two physical simulation tests were conducted and successfully investigated the simulated results. Then, the mechanical model of "cantilever beam and elastic foundation beam" was proposed to calculate the stress distribution and the crack initiation angle in overlying strata and it well explains the mechanisms of ground fissures generation and propagation. Results show that, the maximum internal force in roof always occurred in front of working panel. However, because the void space in gob due to excavation is large enough to cause the bend and rotation of roof strata, compare to the triaxially compressed region in front of working panel, the roof always broke off at some positions above gob since the stress concentration resulting from such bend and rotation of strata could easily reach the limit strength of strata rocks. Also, the length of cantilever beam changed dynamically as respect to the panel advancing and the breakage intervals. Thus, the breakage position where the internal force first reached the limit tensile strength is not fixed and there will be two different kinds of relative positions between the crack initiation point and the working panel. The crack initiation direction is always perpendicular to the internal force, and the crack propagation direction is affected by the initiation angle, overburden-separation degree and the position of the hydraulic shields. If there is no overburden-separation or less, the roofs will break off as a composite beam and the propagation direction will be roughly along the central line between the initial broken point and the support position. Otherwise, the roof strata will bend with the support shields moving forward, then the fracture angle will be close to the initiation angle and the fault surface will be stepped.

Studying Legacy Uranium Contamination On Navajo, Laguna, and Isleta Lands In Collaboration With Native American Undergraduate Researchers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cadol, D. D.; Frey, B.; Chee, C.

2017-12-01

Personally relevant research experiences at key points in a student's education are potentially powerful influences on their long-term career path. With this in mind, New Mexico EPSCoR created the STEM Advancement Program (STEMAP) to provide a summer research experience for students from the non-graduate-degree granting institutions in New Mexico. Recruitment focused on underrepresented minorities, primarily Native American and Hispanic students, who applied to work with one of six research components. Our research component focused on understanding the fate and transport of environmental uranium in the Four Corners region. The geosciences are especially amenable to providing meaningful research experiences, particularly for groups that have a strong cultural connection with the land. Uranium mining activities were extensive on several reservations in the 1950s to 1980s, and many of the sites have not been remediated. The impact of mining likely contributed to the high interest among Native American (especially Navajo) STEMAP applicants in this research topic. In four years of summer research we mentored four Native American students (two male and two female) and one white non-Hispanic female. Following their work in our research group, one student extended her research, three graduated, and one transferred to a research institution. This success likely reflects a combination of recruitment efforts, which built on community connections, as well as efforts to provide personal mentoring and to create an inclusive environment. The work of these students has advanced our understanding of fluvial transport of uranium from inactive mining districts, an important pathway given the role of these streams in providing water for agriculture and aggregate for construction. Findings demonstrate an affinity of uranium to sorb to fine-grained sediment, meaning standing water in stock ponds is of particular concern. The students also studied uranium-bearing dust generated from legacy sites, documenting dissolution of uranium in two contrasting simulated lung fluids. Student presentations in the affected communities closed the communication loop, presenting findings in an accessible format. Ideally these presentations also planted seeds of interest in the geosciences for younger community members.

Solar System Exploration Augmented by In-Situ Resource Utilization: Mercury and Saturn Propulsion Investigations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Palaszewski, Bryan

2016-01-01

Human and robotic missions to Mercury and Saturn are presented and analyzed with a range of propulsion options. Historical studies of space exploration, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), and industrialization all point to the vastness of natural resources in the solar system. Advanced propulsion benefitted from these resources in many ways. While advanced propulsion systems were proposed in these historical studies, further investigation of nuclear options using high power nuclear thermal and nuclear pulse propulsion as well as advanced chemical propulsion can significantly enhance these scenarios. Updated analyses based on these historical visions will be presented. Nuclear thermal propulsion and ISRU enhanced chemical propulsion landers are assessed for Mercury missions. At Saturn, nuclear pulse propulsion with alternate propellant feed systems and Titan exploration with chemical propulsion options are discussed. In-situ resource utilization was found to be critical in making Mercury missions more amenable for human visits. At Saturn, refueling using local atmospheric mining was found to be difficult to impractical, while refueling the Saturn missions from Uranus was more practical and less complex.

A Multi-layer, Data-driven Advanced Reasoning Tool for Intelligent Data Mining and Analysis for Smart Grids

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, Ning; Du, Pengwei; Greitzer, Frank L.

2012-12-31

This paper presents the multi-layer, data-driven advanced reasoning tool (M-DART), a proof-of-principle decision support tool for improved power system operation. M-DART will cross-correlate and examine different data sources to assess anomalies, infer root causes, and anneal data into actionable information. By performing higher-level reasoning “triage” of diverse data sources, M-DART focuses on early detection of emerging power system events and identifies highest priority actions for the human decision maker. M-DART represents a significant advancement over today’s grid monitoring technologies that apply offline analyses to derive model-based guidelines for online real-time operations and use isolated data processing mechanisms focusing on individualmore » data domains. The development of the M-DART will bridge these gaps by reasoning about results obtained from multiple data sources that are enabled by the smart grid infrastructure. This hybrid approach integrates a knowledge base that is trained offline but tuned online to capture model-based relationships while revealing complex causal relationships among data from different domains.« less

Large Mine Permitting - Div. of Mining, Land, and Water

Science.gov Websites

Pebble Project Pogo Mine Red Dog Mine Rock Creek Project True North Mine OPMP Canadian Large Projects Pebble Project Pogo Mine Red Dog Mine Rock Creek Project True North Mine Contact: Kyle Moselle Large Mine

Rare disease diagnosis: A review of web search, social media and large-scale data-mining approaches.

PubMed

Svenstrup, Dan; Jørgensen, Henrik L; Winther, Ole

2015-01-01

Physicians and the general public are increasingly using web-based tools to find answers to medical questions. The field of rare diseases is especially challenging and important as shown by the long delay and many mistakes associated with diagnoses. In this paper we review recent initiatives on the use of web search, social media and data mining in data repositories for medical diagnosis. We compare the retrieval accuracy on 56 rare disease cases with known diagnosis for the web search tools google.com, pubmed.gov, omim.org and our own search tool findzebra.com. We give a detailed description of IBM's Watson system and make a rough comparison between findzebra.com and Watson on subsets of the Doctor's dilemma dataset. The recall@10 and recall@20 (fraction of cases where the correct result appears in top 10 and top 20) for the 56 cases are found to be be 29%, 16%, 27% and 59% and 32%, 18%, 34% and 64%, respectively. Thus, FindZebra has a significantly (p < 0.01) higher recall than the other 3 search engines. When tested under the same conditions, Watson and FindZebra showed similar recall@10 accuracy. However, the tests were performed on different subsets of Doctors dilemma questions. Advances in technology and access to high quality data have opened new possibilities for aiding the diagnostic process. Specialized search engines, data mining tools and social media are some of the areas that hold promise.

Machine Learning and Data Mining Methods in Diabetes Research.

PubMed

Kavakiotis, Ioannis; Tsave, Olga; Salifoglou, Athanasios; Maglaveras, Nicos; Vlahavas, Ioannis; Chouvarda, Ioanna

2017-01-01

The remarkable advances in biotechnology and health sciences have led to a significant production of data, such as high throughput genetic data and clinical information, generated from large Electronic Health Records (EHRs). To this end, application of machine learning and data mining methods in biosciences is presently, more than ever before, vital and indispensable in efforts to transform intelligently all available information into valuable knowledge. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is defined as a group of metabolic disorders exerting significant pressure on human health worldwide. Extensive research in all aspects of diabetes (diagnosis, etiopathophysiology, therapy, etc.) has led to the generation of huge amounts of data. The aim of the present study is to conduct a systematic review of the applications of machine learning, data mining techniques and tools in the field of diabetes research with respect to a) Prediction and Diagnosis, b) Diabetic Complications, c) Genetic Background and Environment, and e) Health Care and Management with the first category appearing to be the most popular. A wide range of machine learning algorithms were employed. In general, 85% of those used were characterized by supervised learning approaches and 15% by unsupervised ones, and more specifically, association rules. Support vector machines (SVM) arise as the most successful and widely used algorithm. Concerning the type of data, clinical datasets were mainly used. The title applications in the selected articles project the usefulness of extracting valuable knowledge leading to new hypotheses targeting deeper understanding and further investigation in DM.

A Data mining Technique for Analyzing and Predicting the success of Movie

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meenakshi, K.; Maragatham, G.; Agarwal, Neha; Ghosh, Ishitha

2018-04-01

In real world prediction models and mechanisms can be used to predict the success of a movie. The proposed work aims to develop a system based upon data mining techniques that may help in predicting the success of a movie in advance thereby reducing certain level of uncertainty. An attempt is made to predict the past as well as the future of movie for the purpose of business certainty or simply a theoretical condition in which decision making [the success of the movie] is without risk, because the decision maker [movie makers and stake holders] has all the information about the exact outcome of the decision, before he or she makes the decision [release of the movie]. With over two million spectators a day and films exported to over 100 countries, the impact of Bollywood film industry is formidable We gather a series of interesting facts and relationships using a variety of data mining techniques. In particular, we concentrate on attributes relevant to the success prediction of movies, such as whether any particular actors or actresses are likely to help a movie to succeed. The paper additionally reports on the techniques used, giving their implementation and utility. Additionally, we found some attention-grabbing facts, such as the budget of a movie isn't any indication of how well-rated it'll be, there's a downward trend within the quality of films over time, and also the director and actors/actresses involved in the movie.

Analysis of design characteristics of a V-type support using an advanced engineering environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gwiazda, A.; Banaś, W.; Sękala, A.; Cwikla, G.; Topolska, S.; Foit, K.; Monica, Z.

2017-08-01

Modern mining support, for the entire period of their use, is the important part of the mining complex, which includes all the devices in the excavation during his normal use. Therefore, during the design of the support, it is an important task to choose the shape and to select the dimensions of a support as well as its strength characteristics. According to the rules, the design process of a support must take into account, inter alia, the type and the dimensions of the expected means of transport, the number and size of pipelines, and the type of additional equipment used excavation area. The support design must ensure the functionality of the excavation process and job security, while maintaining the economic viability of the entire project. Among others it should ensure the selection of a support for specific natural conditions. It is also important to take into consideration the economic characteristics of the project. The article presents an algorithm of integrative approach and its formalized description in the form of integration the areas of different construction characteristics optimization of a V-type mining support. The paper includes the example of its application for developing the construction of this support. In the paper is also described the results of the characteristics analysis and changings that were introduced afterwards. The support models are prepared in the computer environment of the CAD class (Siemens NX PLM). Also the analyses were conducted in this design, graphical environment.

Rare disease diagnosis: A review of web search, social media and large-scale data-mining approaches

PubMed Central

Svenstrup, Dan; Jørgensen, Henrik L; Winther, Ole

2015-01-01

Physicians and the general public are increasingly using web-based tools to find answers to medical questions. The field of rare diseases is especially challenging and important as shown by the long delay and many mistakes associated with diagnoses. In this paper we review recent initiatives on the use of web search, social media and data mining in data repositories for medical diagnosis. We compare the retrieval accuracy on 56 rare disease cases with known diagnosis for the web search tools google.com, pubmed.gov, omim.org and our own search tool findzebra.com. We give a detailed description of IBM's Watson system and make a rough comparison between findzebra.com and Watson on subsets of the Doctor's dilemma dataset. The recall@10 and recall@20 (fraction of cases where the correct result appears in top 10 and top 20) for the 56 cases are found to be be 29%, 16%, 27% and 59% and 32%, 18%, 34% and 64%, respectively. Thus, FindZebra has a significantly (p < 0.01) higher recall than the other 3 search engines. When tested under the same conditions, Watson and FindZebra showed similar recall@10 accuracy. However, the tests were performed on different subsets of Doctors dilemma questions. Advances in technology and access to high quality data have opened new possibilities for aiding the diagnostic process. Specialized search engines, data mining tools and social media are some of the areas that hold promise. PMID:26442199

Electrochemistry for Energy Conversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Hayre, Ryan

2010-10-01

Imagine a laptop computer that runs for 30 hours on a single charge. Imagine a world where you plug your house into your car and power lines are a distant memory. These dreams motivate today's fuel cell research. While some dreams (like powering your home with your fuel cell car) may be distant, others (like a 30-hour fuel cell laptop) may be closer than you think. If you are curious about fuel cells---how they work, when you might start seeing them in your daily life--- this talk is for you. Learn about the state-of-the art in fuel cells, and where the technology is likely to be headed in the next 20 years. You'll also be treated to several ``behind-the scenes'' glimpses of cutting-edge research projects under development in the Renewable Energy Materials Center at the Colorado School of Mines--- projects like an ``ionic transistor'' that works with protons instead of electrons, and a special ceramic membrane material that enables the ``uphill'' diffusion of steam. Associate Professor Ryan O'Hayre's laboratory at the Colorado School of Mines develops new materials and devices to enable alternative energy technologies including fuel cells and solar cells. Prof. O'Hayre and his students collaborate with the Colorado Fuel Cell Center, the Colorado Center for Advanced Ceramics, the Renewable Energy Materials Science and Engineering Center, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.[4pt] In collaboration with Ann Deml, Jianhua Tong, Svitlana Pylypenko, Archana Subramaniyan, Micahael Sanders, Jason Fish, Annette Bunge, Colorado School of Mines.