Sample records for obtain global information

  1. Information systems - Issues in global habitability

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Norman, S. D.; Brass, J. A.; Jones, H.; Morse, D. R.

    1984-01-01

    The present investigation is concerned with fundamental issues, related to information considerations, which arise in an interdisciplinary approach to questions of global habitability. Information system problems and issues are illustrated with the aid of an example involving biochemical cycling and biochemical productivity. The estimation of net primary production (NPP) as an important consideration in the overall global habitability issue is discussed. The NPP model requires three types of data, related to meteorological information, a land surface inventory, and the vegetation structure. Approaches for obtaining and processing these data are discussed. Attention is given to user requirements, information system requirements, workstations, network communications, hardware/software access, and data management.

  2. 40 CFR 1515.10 - Obtaining available information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 34 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Obtaining available information. 1515.10 Section 1515.10 Protection of Environment COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT PROCEDURES Availability of Information § 1515.10 Obtaining available information. (a) When a...

  3. 48 CFR 209.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), available at http://www.ppirs.gov. Information relating to contract... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Obtaining information. 209....105-1 Obtaining information. (1) For guidance on using the Excluded Parties List System, see PGI 209...

  4. 48 CFR 209.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), available at http://www.ppirs.gov. Information relating to... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Obtaining information. 209....105-1 Obtaining information. (1) For guidance on using the System for Award Management Exclusions, see...

  5. 48 CFR 209.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), available at http://www.ppirs.gov. Information relating to contract... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Obtaining information. 209....105-1 Obtaining information. (1) For guidance on using the Excluded Parties List System, see PGI 209...

  6. 48 CFR 209.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), available at http://www.ppirs.gov. Information relating to contract... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Obtaining information. 209....105-1 Obtaining information. (1) For guidance on using the Excluded Parties List System, see PGI 209...

  7. 48 CFR 9.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Obtaining information. 9... information. (a) Before making a determination of responsibility, the contracting officer shall possess or obtain information sufficient to be satisfied that a prospective contractor currently meets the...

  8. 48 CFR 509.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Obtaining information. 509... Obtaining information. (a) From a prospective contractor. FAR 9.105-1 lists a number of sources of information that a contracting officer may utilize before making a determination of responsibility. The...

  9. 48 CFR 509.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Obtaining information. 509... Obtaining information. (a) From a prospective contractor. FAR 9.105-1 lists a number of sources of information that a contracting officer may utilize before making a determination of responsibility. The...

  10. 48 CFR 509.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Obtaining information. 509... Obtaining information. (a) From a prospective contractor. FAR 9.105-1 lists a number of sources of information that a contracting officer may utilize before making a determination of responsibility. The...

  11. 48 CFR 509.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Obtaining information. 509... Obtaining information. (a) From a prospective contractor. FAR 9.105-1 lists a number of sources of information that a contracting officer may utilize before making a determination of responsibility. The...

  12. 48 CFR 209.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 3 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Obtaining information. 209....105-1 Obtaining information. (1) For guidance on using the Exclusions section of the System for Award... responsibility (see FAR 9.104-1(c)). One source of information relating to contractor performance is the Past...

  13. 5 CFR 1501.12 - Obtaining further information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Obtaining further information. 1501.12 Section 1501.12 Administrative Personnel THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS EMPLOYEES LOYALTY BOARD OPERATIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS EMPLOYEES LOYALTY BOARD § 1501.12 Obtaining further information...

  14. The Global Drought Information System - A Decision Support Tool with Global Applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heim, R. R.; Brewer, M.

    2012-12-01

    Drought is a natural hazard which can cause famine in developing countries and severe economic hardship in developed countries. Given current concerns with the increasing frequency and magnitude of droughts in many regions of the world, especially in the light of expected climate change, drought monitoring and dissemination of early warning information in a timely fashion on a global scale is a critical concern as an important adaptation and mitigation strategy. While a number of nations, and a few continental-scale activities have developed drought information system activities, a global drought early warning system (GDEWS) remains elusive, despite the benefits highlighted by ministers to the Global Earth Observation System of System in 2008. In an effort to begin a process of drought monitoring with international collaboration, the National Integrated Drought Information System's (NIDIS) U.S. Drought Portal, a web-based information system created to address drought services and early warning in the United States, including drought monitoring, forecasting, impacts, mitigation, research, and education, volunteered to develop a prototype Global Drought Monitoring Portal (GDMP). Through integration of data and information at the global level, and with four continental-level partners, the GDMP has proven successful as a tool to monitor drought around the globe. At a recent meeting between NIDIS, the World Meteorological Organization, and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, it was recommended that the GDMP form the basis for a Global Drought Information System (GDIS). Currently, GDIS activities are focused around incorporating additional drought monitoring information, especially from those areas without regional or continental-scale input, and incorporating drought-specific climate forecast information from the World Climate Research Programme. Additional GDIS pilot activities are underway with an emphasis on information and decision making, and how to

  15. The Global Drought Information System - A Decision Support Tool with Global Applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arndt, D. S.; Brewer, M.; Heim, R. R., Jr.

    2014-12-01

    Drought is a natural hazard which can cause famine in developing countries and severe economic hardship in developed countries. Given current concerns with the increasing frequency and magnitude of droughts in many regions of the world, especially in the light of expected climate change, drought monitoring and dissemination of early warning information in a timely fashion on a global scale is a critical concern as an important adaptation and mitigation strategy. While a number of nations, and a few continental-scale activities have developed drought information system activities, a global drought early warning system (GDEWS) remains elusive, despite the benefits highlighted by ministers to the Global Earth Observation System of System in 2008. In an effort to begin a process of drought monitoring with international collaboration, the National Integrated Drought Information System's (NIDIS) U.S. Drought Portal, a web-based information system created to address drought services and early warning in the United States, including drought monitoring, forecasting, impacts, mitigation, research, and education, volunteered to develop a prototype Global Drought Monitoring Portal (GDMP). Through integration of data and information at the global level, and with four continental-level partners, the GDMP has proven successful as a tool to monitor drought around the globe. At a past meeting between NIDIS, the World Meteorological Organization, and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, it was recommended that the GDMP form the basis for a Global Drought Information System (GDIS). Currently, GDIS activities are focused around providing operational global drought monitoring products and assessments, incorporating additional drought monitoring information, especially from those areas without regional or continental-scale input, and incorporating drought-specific climate forecast information from the World Climate Research Programme. Additional GDIS pilot activities are

  16. 5 CFR 2411.5 - Procedure for obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 5 Administrative Personnel 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Procedure for obtaining information. 2411.5 Section 2411.5 Administrative Personnel FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AUTHORITY, GENERAL COUNSEL OF THE... OFFICIAL INFORMATION § 2411.5 Procedure for obtaining information. (a) Authority/General Counsel/Panel/IG...

  17. Global shape information increases but color information decreases the composite face effect.

    PubMed

    Retter, Talia L; Rossion, Bruno

    2015-01-01

    The separation of visual shape and surface information may be useful for understanding holistic face perception--that is, the perception of a face as a single unit (Jiang, Blanz, & Rossion, 2011, Visual Cognition, 19, 1003-1034). A widely used measure of holistic face perception is the composite face effect (CFE), in which identical top face halves appear different when aligned with bottom face halves from different identities. In the present study the influences of global face shape (ie contour of the face) and color information on the CFE are investigated, with the hypothesis that global face shape supports but color impairs holistic face perception as measured in this paradigm. In experiment 1 the CFE is significantly increased when face stimuli possess natural global shape information than when cropped to a generic (ie oval) global shape; this effect is not found when the stimuli are presented inverted. In experiment 2 the CFE is significantly decreased when face stimuli are presented with color information than when presented in grayscale. These findings indicate that grayscale stimuli maintaining natural global face shape information provide the most adept measure of holistic face perception in the behavioral composite face paradigm. More generally, they show that reducing different types of information diagnostic for individual face perception can have opposite effects on the CFE, illustrating the functional dissociation between shape and surface information in face perception.

  18. A metadata initiative for global information discovery

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Christian, E.

    2001-01-01

    The Global Information Locator Service (GILS) encompasses a global vision framed by the fundamental values of open societies. Societal values such as a free flow of information impose certain requirements on the society's information infrastructure. These requirements in turn shape the various laws, policies, standards, and technologies that determine the infrastructure design. A particular focus of GILS is the requirement to provide the means for people to discover sources of data and information. Information discovery in the GILS vision is designed to be decentralized yet coherent, and globally comprehensive yet useful for detailed data. This article introduces basic concepts and design issues, with emphasis on the techniques by which GILS supports interoperability. It explains the practical implications of GILS for the common roles of organizations involved in handling information, from content provider through system engineer and intermediary to searcher. The article provides examples of GILS initiatives in various types of communities: bibliographic, geographic, environmental, and government. ?? 2001 Elsevier Science Inc.

  19. 21 CFR 20.109 - Data and information obtained by contract.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Data and information obtained by contract. 20.109... GENERAL PUBLIC INFORMATION Availability of Specific Categories of Records § 20.109 Data and information obtained by contract. (a) All data and information obtained by the Food and Drug Administration by contract...

  20. 48 CFR 9.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... the responsibility of prospective contractors, including requesting preaward surveys when necessary..., especially when research and development is involved, the contracting officer may obtain this information... information concerning (i) the low bidder or (ii) those offerors in range for award. (2) Preaward surveys...

  1. 48 CFR 9.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... the responsibility of prospective contractors, including requesting preaward surveys when necessary..., especially when research and development is involved, the contracting officer may obtain this information... information concerning (i) the low bidder or (ii) those offerors in range for award. (2) Preaward surveys...

  2. 48 CFR 9.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... the responsibility of prospective contractors, including requesting preaward surveys when necessary..., especially when research and development is involved, the contracting officer may obtain this information... information concerning (i) the low bidder or (ii) those offerors in range for award. (2) Preaward surveys...

  3. 48 CFR 9.105-1 - Obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... information required concerning the adequacy of prospective contractors' accounting systems and these systems... accounting systems, and these systems' suitability for use in administering the proposed type of contract. (3... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Obtaining information. 9...

  4. Earth science information: Planning for the integration and use of global change information

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lousma, Jack R.

    1992-01-01

    Activities and accomplishments of the first six months of the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN's) 1992 technical program have focused on four main missions: (1) the development and implementation of plans for initiation of the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) as part of the EOSDIS Program; (2) the pursuit and development of a broad-based global change information cooperative by providing systems analysis and integration between natural science and social science data bases held by numerous federal agencies and other sources; (3) the fostering of scientific research into the human dimensions of global change and providing integration between natural science and social science data and information; and (4) the serving of CIESIN as a gateway for global change data and information distribution through development of the Global Change Research Information Office and other comprehensive knowledge sharing systems.

  5. Concepts for a global resources information system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Billingsley, F. C.; Urena, J. L.

    1984-01-01

    The objective of the Global Resources Information System (GRIS) is to establish an effective and efficient information management system to meet the data access requirements of NASA and NASA-related scientists conducting large-scale, multi-disciplinary, multi-mission scientific investigations. Using standard interfaces and operating guidelines, diverse data systems can be integrated to provide the capabilities to access and process multiple geographically dispersed data sets and to develop the necessary procedures and algorithms to derive global resource information.

  6. Information technologies, health, and "globalization": anyone excluded?

    PubMed

    Parent, F; Coppieters, Y; Parent, M

    2001-01-01

    Modern information technologies and worldwide communication through the Internet promise both universal access to information and the globalization of the medico-social network s modes of communication between doctors, laboratories, patients, and other players. The authors, specialists in public health and members of an association that aims to create opportunities for access to training in public health in developing countries, warn that the use of the term "globalization" ignores the reality of the "digital divide," that is, the fact that social inequalities may preclude the realization of this promise on a truly global scale.

  7. Information Technologies, Health, and Globalization: Anyone Excluded?

    PubMed Central

    Parent, Florence; Parent, Marc

    2001-01-01

    Modern information technologies and worldwide communication through the Internet promise both universal access to information and the globalization of the medico-social network's modes of communication between doctors, laboratories, patients, and other players. The authors, specialists in public health and members of an association that aims to create opportunities for access to training in public health in developing countries, warn that the use of the term "globalization" ignores the reality of the "digital divide," that is, the fact that social inequalities may preclude the realization of this promise on a truly global scale. PMID:11720953

  8. 19 CFR 201.9 - Methods employed in obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 3 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Methods employed in obtaining information. 201.9 Section 201.9 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION GENERAL RULES OF GENERAL APPLICATION Initiation and Conduct of Investigations § 201.9 Methods employed in obtaining information. In...

  9. 19 CFR 201.9 - Methods employed in obtaining information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 3 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Methods employed in obtaining information. 201.9 Section 201.9 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION GENERAL RULES OF GENERAL APPLICATION Initiation and Conduct of Investigations § 201.9 Methods employed in obtaining information. In...

  10. Obtaining information by dynamic (effortful) touching

    PubMed Central

    Turvey, M. T.; Carello, Claudia

    2011-01-01

    Dynamic touching is effortful touching. It entails deformation of muscles and fascia and activation of the embedded mechanoreceptors, as when an object is supported and moved by the body. It is realized as exploratory activities that can vary widely in spatial and temporal extents (a momentary heft, an extended walk). Research has revealed the potential of dynamic touching for obtaining non-visual information about the body (e.g. limb orientation), attachments to the body (e.g. an object's height and width) and the relation of the body both to attachments (e.g. hand's location on a grasped object) and surrounding surfaces (e.g. places and their distances). Invariants over the exploratory activity (e.g. moments of a wielded object's mass distribution) seem to ground this ‘information about’. The conception of a haptic medium as a nested tensegrity structure has been proposed to express the obtained information realized by myofascia deformation, by its invariants and transformations. The tensegrity proposal rationalizes the relative indifference of dynamic touch to the site of mechanical contact (hand, foot, torso or probe) and the overtness of exploratory activity. It also provides a framework for dynamic touching's fractal nature, and the finding that its degree of fractality may matter to its accomplishments. PMID:21969694

  11. Adaptable Information Models in the Global Change Information System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duggan, B.; Buddenberg, A.; Aulenbach, S.; Wolfe, R.; Goldstein, J.

    2014-12-01

    The US Global Change Research Program has sponsored the creation of the Global Change Information System () to provide a web based source of accessible, usable, and timely information about climate and global change for use by scientists, decision makers, and the public. The GCIS played multiple roles during the assembly and release of the Third National Climate Assessment. It provided human and programmable interfaces, relational and semantic representations of information, and discrete identifiers for various types of resources, which could then be manipulated by a distributed team with a wide range of specialties. The GCIS also served as a scalable backend for the web based version of the report. In this talk, we discuss the infrastructure decisions made during the design and deployment of the GCIS, as well as ongoing work to adapt to new types of information. Both a constrained relational database and an open ended triple store are used to ensure data integrity while maintaining fluidity. Using natural primary keys allows identifiers to propagate through both models. Changing identifiers are accomodated through fine grained auditing and explicit mappings to external lexicons. A practical RESTful API is used whose endpoints are also URIs in an ontology. Both the relational schema and the ontology are maleable, and stability is ensured through test driven development and continuous integration testing using modern open source techniques. Content is also validated through continuous testing techniques. A high degres of scalability is achieved through caching.

  12. U.S. Global Change Research Program National Climate Assessment Global Change Information System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tilmes, Curt

    2012-01-01

    The program: a) Coordinates Federal research to better understand and prepare the nation for global change. b) Priori4zes and supports cutting edge scientific work in global change. c) Assesses the state of scientific knowledge and the Nation s readiness to respond to global change. d) Communicates research findings to inform, educate, and engage the global community.

  13. Global Land Information System (GLIS)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    1992-01-01

    The Global Land Information System (GLIS) is an interactive computer system developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for scientists seeking sources of information about the Earth's land surfaces. GLIS contains "metadata," that is, descriptive information about data sets. Through GLIS, scientists can evaluate data sets, determine their availability, and place online requests for products. GLIS is more, however, than a mere list of products. It offers online samples of earth science data that may be ordered through the system.

  14. Children inhibit global information when the forest is dense and local information when the forest is sparse.

    PubMed

    Krakowski, Claire-Sara; Borst, Grégoire; Vidal, Julie; Houdé, Olivier; Poirel, Nicolas

    2018-09-01

    Visual environments are composed of global shapes and local details that compete for attentional resources. In adults, the global level is processed more rapidly than the local level, and global information must be inhibited in order to process local information when the local information and global information are in conflict. Compared with adults, children present less of a bias toward global visual information and appear to be more sensitive to the density of local elements that constitute the global level. The current study aimed, for the first time, to investigate the key role of inhibition during global/local processing in children. By including two different conditions of global saliency during a negative priming procedure, the results showed that when the global level was salient (dense hierarchical figures), 7-year-old children and adults needed to inhibit the global level to process the local information. However, when the global level was less salient (sparse hierarchical figures), only children needed to inhibit the local level to process the global information. These results confirm a weaker global bias and the greater impact of saliency in children than in adults. Moreover, the results indicate that, regardless of age, inhibition of the most salient hierarchical level is systematically required to select the less salient but more relevant level. These findings have important implications for future research in this area. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Thai Youths and Global Warming: Media Information, Awareness, and Lifestyle Activities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chokriensukchai, Kanchana; Tamang, Ritendra

    2010-01-01

    This study examines the exposure of Thai youths to media information on global warming, the relationship between exposure to global warming information and awareness of global warming, and the relationship between that awareness and lifestyle activities that contribute to global warming. A focus group of eight Thai youths provided information that…

  16. National Practice Patterns of Obtaining Informed Consent for Stroke Thrombolysis.

    PubMed

    Mendelson, Scott J; Courtney, D Mark; Gordon, Elisa J; Thomas, Leena F; Holl, Jane L; Prabhakaran, Shyam

    2018-03-01

    No standard approach to obtaining informed consent for stroke thrombolysis with tPA (tissue-type plasminogen activator) currently exists. We aimed to assess current nationwide practice patterns of obtaining informed consent for tPA. An online survey was developed and distributed by e-mail to clinicians involved in acute stroke care. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to determine independent factors contributing to always obtaining informed consent for tPA. Among 268 respondents, 36.7% reported always obtaining informed consent and 51.8% reported the informed consent process caused treatment delays. Being an emergency medicine physician (odds ratio, 5.8; 95% confidence interval, 2.9-11.5) and practicing at a nonacademic medical center (odds ratio, 2.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.0-4.3) were independently associated with always requiring informed consent. The most commonly cited cause of delay was waiting for a patient's family to reach consensus about treatment. Most clinicians always or often require informed consent for stroke thrombolysis. Future research should focus on standardizing content and delivery of tPA information to reduce delays. © 2018 American Heart Association, Inc.

  17. Earth science information: Planning for the integration and use of global change information

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lousma, Jack R.

    1992-01-01

    The Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) was founded in 1989 as a non-profit corporation dedicated to facilitating access to, use and understanding of global change information worldwide. The Consortium was created to cooperate and coordinate with organizations and researchers throughout the global change community to further access the most advanced technology, the latest scientific research, and the best information available for critical environmental decision making. CIESIN study efforts are guided by Congressional mandates to 'convene key present and potential users to assess the need for investment in integration of earth science information,' to 'outline the desirable pattern of interaction with the scientific and policy community,' and to 'develop recommendations and draft plans to achieve the appropriate level of effort in the use of earth science data for research and public policy purposes.' In addition, CIESIN is tasked by NASA to develop a data center that would extend the benefits of Earth Observing System (EOS) to the users of global change information related to human dimensions issues. For FY 1991, CIESIN focused on two main objectives. The first addressed the identification of information needs of global change research and non-research user groups worldwide. The second focused on an evaluation of the most efficient mechanisms for making this information available in usable forms.

  18. Data and information system requirements for Global Change Research

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Skole, David L.; Chomentowski, Walter H.; Ding, Binbin; Moore, Berrien, III

    1992-01-01

    Efforts to develop local information systems for supporting interdisciplinary Global Change Research are described. A prototype system, the Interdisciplinary Science Data and Information System (IDS-DIS), designed to interface the larger archives centers of EOS-DIS is presented. Particular attention is given to a data query information management system (IMS), which has been used to tabulate information of Landsat data worldwide. The use of these data in a modeling analysis of deforestation and carbon dioxide emissions is demonstrated. The development of distributed local information systems is considered to be complementary to the development of central data archives. Global Change Research under the EOS program is likely to result in proliferation of data centers. It is concluded that a distributed system is a feasible and natural way to manage data and information for global change research.

  19. Knowledge Management and Global Information Dissemination

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Umunadi, Ejiwoke Kennedy

    2014-01-01

    The paper looked at knowledge management and global information dissemination. Knowledge is a very powerful tool for survival, growth and development. It can be seen as the information, understanding and skills that you gain through education or experience. The paper was addressed under the following sub-headings: Knowledge management knowledge…

  20. 28 CFR 51.38 - Obtaining information from others.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Obtaining information from others. 51.38 Section 51.38 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (CONTINUED) PROCEDURES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF SECTION 5 OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965, AS AMENDED Processing of Submissions § 51.38 Obtaining...

  1. 28 CFR 51.38 - Obtaining information from others.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Obtaining information from others. 51.38 Section 51.38 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (CONTINUED) PROCEDURES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF SECTION 5 OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965, AS AMENDED Processing of Submissions § 51.38 Obtaining...

  2. Global Soil Information Facilities - Component Worldgrids.org

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reuter, H. I.; Hengl, T.

    2012-04-01

    GSIF (Global Soil Information Facilities) is ISRIC's framework for production of open soil data. It has been inspired by global environmental data initiatives (e.g. oneGeology, GBIF). The main practical motivation for GSIF is to build cyber-infrastructure to collate legacy (i.e., historic) soil data currently under threat of being lost forever and to generate new soil information. The objective of the component worldgrids is a (de)-central repository for collecting, storing, accessing and interacting with gridded data sets of global soil covariate data for production mapping, while being part of a larger GSIF. It is the physical implementation of the expectation that ISRIC would lead and coordinate a project to assemble a core data set of global environmental covariates to (partly) support local efforts to produce global soil property maps. Currently over 100 layers with a 5 and 1 km resolution with a global coverage can be accessed via www.worldgrids.org. Three different functionalities are implemented to extract data in an OGC complained matter: i) single point overlay ii) mass point overlay; iii) zone grid overlay with reporting of different statistical parameters. The presentation will focus on datasets, functionalities, access via the R-project and ArcGIS globalsoilmap.net Toolbox as well on future enhancements to the worldgrids platform.

  3. 48 CFR 1809.505-4 - Obtaining access to sensitive information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 6 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Obtaining access to sensitive information. 1809.505-4 Section 1809.505-4 Federal Acquisition Regulations System NATIONAL... Organizational and Consultant Conflicts of Interest 1809.505-4 Obtaining access to sensitive information. (b) In...

  4. Providing Global Change Information for Decision-Making: Capturing and Presenting Provenance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ma, Xiaogang; Fox, Peter; Tilmes, Curt; Jacobs, Katherine; Waple, Anne

    2014-01-01

    Global change information demands access to data sources and well-documented provenance to provide evidence needed to build confidence in scientific conclusions and, in specific applications, to ensure the information's suitability for use in decision-making. A new generation of Web technology, the Semantic Web, provides tools for that purpose. The topic of global change covers changes in the global environment (including alterations in climate, land productivity, oceans or other water resources, atmospheric composition and or chemistry, and ecological systems) that may alter the capacity of the Earth to sustain life and support human systems. Data and findings associated with global change research are of great public, government, and academic concern and are used in policy and decision-making, which makes the provenance of global change information especially important. In addition, since different types of decisions benefit from different types of information, understanding how to capture and present the provenance of global change information is becoming more of an imperative in adaptive planning.

  5. Information empowerment: predeparture resource training for students in global health.

    PubMed

    Rana, Gurpreet K

    2014-04-01

    The Taubman Health Sciences Library (THL) collaborates with health sciences schools to provide information skills instruction for students preparing for international experiences. THL enhances students' global health learning through predeparture instruction for students who are involved in global health research, clinical internships, and international collaborations. This includes teaching international literature searching skills, providing country-specific data sources, building awareness of relevant mobile resources, and encouraging investigation of international news. Information skills empower creation of stronger global partnerships. Use of information resources has enhanced international research and training experiences, built lifelong learning foundations, and contributed to the university's global engagement. THL continues to assess predeparture instruction.

  6. Global change information support - A north/south coalition

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Blados, Walter R.; Cotter, Gladys A.

    1993-01-01

    On a daily basis we become more aware that our planet, earth, exists in a delicate balance; we, its inhabitants, must be informed caretakers. Global change communities have emerged around the globe to address this multidisciplinary subject. Information systems that integrate text, bibliographic, numeric and visual data are needed to support these global change communities. No one information center can hope to collect all the relevant data. Rather, we must form a coalition, North and South, to collect and provide access to disparate, multidisciplinary sources of information, and to develop standardized tools for documenting and manipulating this data and information. International resources need to be mobilized in a coordinated manner to move us towards this goal. This paper looks at emerging information technologies that can be utilized to build such a system, and outlines some cooperative North/South strategies.

  7. Global change information support: A north-south coalition

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Blados, Walter R.; Cotter, Gladys A.

    1993-01-01

    On a daily basis we become more aware that our planet, earth, exists in a delicate balance; we, its inhabitants, must be informed caretakers. Global change communities have emerged around the globe to address this multidisciplinary subject. Information systems that integrate text, bibliographic, numeric and visual data are needed to support these global change communities. No one information center can hope to collect all the relevant data. Rather, we must form a coalition, North and South, to collect and provide access to disparate, multidisciplinary sources of information, and to develop standardized tools for documenting and manipulating this data and information. International resources need to be mobilized in a coordinated manner to move us towards this goal. This paper looks at emerging information technologies that can be utilized to build such a system, and outlines some cooperative North/South strategies.

  8. Studies Based on Lunar Global Subsurface Radar Sounding Data Obtained by SELENE (Kaguya)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumamoto, A.; Yamaguchi, Y.; Yamaji, A.; Oshigami, S.; Ishiyama, K.; Nakamura, N.; Haruyama, J.; Miyamoto, H.; Nishibori, T.; Tsuchiya, F.; Ohtake, M.

    2018-04-01

    Several studies based on lunar global subsurface radar sounding data obtained by SELENE/LRS will be reviewed. From the subsurface structures of the buried regolith layers, we can discuss the evolution of tectonic and volcanic processes in the maria.

  9. Provenance Representation in the Global Change Information System (GCIS)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tilmes, Curt

    2012-01-01

    Global climate change is a topic that has become very controversial despite strong support within the scientific community. It is common for agencies releasing information about climate change to be served with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for everything that led to that conclusion. Capturing and presenting the provenance, linking to the research papers, data sets, models, analyses, observation instruments and satellites, etc. supporting key findings has the potential to mitigate skepticism in this domain. The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is now coordinating the production of a National Climate Assessment (NCA) that presents our best understanding of global change. We are now developing a Global Change Information System (GCIS) that will present the content of that report and its provenance, including the scientific support for the findings of the assessment. We are using an approach that will present this information both through a human accessible web site as well as a machine readable interface for automated mining of the provenance graph. We plan to use the developing W3C PROV Data Model and Ontology for this system.

  10. 12 CFR 1202.3 - What information can I obtain through FOIA?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 12 Banks and Banking 7 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false What information can I obtain through FOIA? 1202.3 Section 1202.3 Banks and Banking FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY ORGANIZATION AND OPERATIONS FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT § 1202.3 What information can I obtain through FOIA? (a) General. FHFA...

  11. SoilGrids1km — Global Soil Information Based on Automated Mapping

    PubMed Central

    Hengl, Tomislav; de Jesus, Jorge Mendes; MacMillan, Robert A.; Batjes, Niels H.; Heuvelink, Gerard B. M.; Ribeiro, Eloi; Samuel-Rosa, Alessandro; Kempen, Bas; Leenaars, Johan G. B.; Walsh, Markus G.; Gonzalez, Maria Ruiperez

    2014-01-01

    Background Soils are widely recognized as a non-renewable natural resource and as biophysical carbon sinks. As such, there is a growing requirement for global soil information. Although several global soil information systems already exist, these tend to suffer from inconsistencies and limited spatial detail. Methodology/Principal Findings We present SoilGrids1km — a global 3D soil information system at 1 km resolution — containing spatial predictions for a selection of soil properties (at six standard depths): soil organic carbon (g kg−1), soil pH, sand, silt and clay fractions (%), bulk density (kg m−3), cation-exchange capacity (cmol+/kg), coarse fragments (%), soil organic carbon stock (t ha−1), depth to bedrock (cm), World Reference Base soil groups, and USDA Soil Taxonomy suborders. Our predictions are based on global spatial prediction models which we fitted, per soil variable, using a compilation of major international soil profile databases (ca. 110,000 soil profiles), and a selection of ca. 75 global environmental covariates representing soil forming factors. Results of regression modeling indicate that the most useful covariates for modeling soils at the global scale are climatic and biomass indices (based on MODIS images), lithology, and taxonomic mapping units derived from conventional soil survey (Harmonized World Soil Database). Prediction accuracies assessed using 5–fold cross-validation were between 23–51%. Conclusions/Significance SoilGrids1km provide an initial set of examples of soil spatial data for input into global models at a resolution and consistency not previously available. Some of the main limitations of the current version of SoilGrids1km are: (1) weak relationships between soil properties/classes and explanatory variables due to scale mismatches, (2) difficulty to obtain covariates that capture soil forming factors, (3) low sampling density and spatial clustering of soil profile locations. However, as the Soil

  12. 48 CFR 1509.505-4 - Obtaining access to proprietary information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... PROTECTION AGENCY ACQUISITION PLANNING CONTRACTOR QUALIFICATIONS Organizational Conflicts of Interests 1509.505-4 Obtaining access to proprietary information. Contractors gaining access to confidential business... business information. ...

  13. Agile Data Management with the Global Change Information System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duggan, B.; Aulenbach, S.; Tilmes, C.; Goldstein, J.

    2013-12-01

    We describe experiences applying agile software development techniques to the realm of data management during the development of the Global Change Information System (GCIS), a web service and API for authoritative global change information under development by the US Global Change Research Program. Some of the challenges during system design and implementation have been : (1) balancing the need for a rigorous mechanism for ensuring information quality with the realities of large data sets whose contents are often in flux, (2) utilizing existing data to inform decisions about the scope and nature of new data, and (3) continuously incorporating new knowledge and concepts into a relational data model. The workflow for managing the content of the system has much in common with the development of the system itself. We examine various aspects of agile software development and discuss whether or how we have been able to use them for data curation as well as software development.

  14. Hierarchical information fusion for global displacement estimation in microsensor motion capture.

    PubMed

    Meng, Xiaoli; Zhang, Zhi-Qiang; Wu, Jian-Kang; Wong, Wai-Choong

    2013-07-01

    This paper presents a novel hierarchical information fusion algorithm to obtain human global displacement for different gait patterns, including walking, running, and hopping based on seven body-worn inertial and magnetic measurement units. In the first-level sensor fusion, the orientation for each segment is achieved by a complementary Kalman filter (CKF) which compensates for the orientation error of the inertial navigation system solution through its error state vector. For each foot segment, the displacement is also estimated by the CKF, and zero velocity update is included for the drift reduction in foot displacement estimation. Based on the segment orientations and left/right foot locations, two global displacement estimates can be acquired from left/right lower limb separately using a linked biomechanical model. In the second-level geometric fusion, another Kalman filter is deployed to compensate for the difference between the two estimates from the sensor fusion and get more accurate overall global displacement estimation. The updated global displacement will be transmitted to left/right foot based on the human lower biomechanical model to restrict the drifts in both feet displacements. The experimental results have shown that our proposed method can accurately estimate human locomotion for the three different gait patterns with regard to the optical motion tracker.

  15. Information Technologies and Globalization: New Perspectives of Teaching Learning Process

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hussain, Irshad

    2008-01-01

    This article discusses how information technologies and globalization have opened new avenues and horizons for educators and learners. It discusses different experiences of using information and communication technologies (ICTs) in teaching learning process the world over in the age of globalization. It focuses on the ways these new trends have…

  16. Global information sampling in the honey bee

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Johnson, Brian R.

    2008-06-01

    Central to the question of task allocation in social insects is how workers acquire information. Patrolling is a curious behavior in which bees meander over the face of the comb inspecting cells. Several authors have suggested it allows bees to collect global information, but this has never been formally evaluated. This study explores this hypothesis by answering three questions. First, do bees gather information in a consistent manner as they patrol? Second, do they move far enough to get a sense of task demand in distant areas of the nest? And third, is patrolling a commonly performed task? Focal animal observations were used to address the first two predictions, while a scan sampling study was used to address the third. The results were affirmative for each question. While patrolling, workers collected information by performing periodic clusters of cell inspections. Patrolling bees not only traveled far enough to frequently change work zone; they often visited every part of the nest. Finally, the majority of the bees in the middle-age caste were shown to move throughout the nest over the course of a few hours in a manner suggestive of patrolling. Global information collection is contrary to much current theory, which assumes that workers respond to local information only. This study thus highlights the nonmutually exclusive nature of various information collection regimes in social insects.

  17. A Global Landslide Nowcasting System using Remotely Sensed Information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kirschbaum, Dalia; Stanely, Thomas

    2017-04-01

    A global Landslide Hazard Assessment model for Situational Awareness (LHASA) has been developed that combines susceptibility information with satellite-based precipitation to provide an indication of potential landslide activity at the global scale every 30 minutes. This model utilizes a 1-km global susceptibility map derived from information on slope, geology, road networks, fault zones, and forest loss. A multi-satellite dataset from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission is used to identify the current and antecedent rainfall conditions from the past 7 days. When both rainfall and susceptibility are high, a "nowcast" is issued to indicate areas where a landslide may be likely. The global LHASA model is currently being run in near real-time every 30 minutes and the outputs are available in several different formats at https://pmm.nasa.gov/precip-apps. This talk outlines the LHASA system, discusses the performance metrics and potential applications of the LHASA system.

  18. 21 CFR 20.109 - Data and information obtained by contract.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Data and information obtained by contract. 20.109 Section 20.109 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL PUBLIC INFORMATION Availability of Specific Categories of Records § 20.109 Data and information...

  19. China's Mission in Surveying, Mapping and Geographic Information during Global Governance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jia, D.; Xue, C.; Chen, X.

    2018-04-01

    In the new era, it is proposed that China should be transformed from a participant and a cooperator into a designer, an impeller and a leader, continue taking an effect of responsible great power, increase public product supply, perfect a global governance system and contribute to China's wisdom and China's schemes during global governance, thus surveying and mapping geographic information takes on great mission. On the one hand, we have to timely grasp global geographic information data resources to provide an important scientific data support for China's wisdom and China's schemes. On the other hand, we have to provide surveying and mapping geographic information infrastructure construction and public products for developing countries, support location services within a global territorial scope, and realize the smoothness of talent flow, material flow and information flow between China and countries in the world. Meanwhile, external assistance and international communication and cooperation of surveying and mapping geographic information are also enhanced, and popularization and application of a geographic information technology in underdeveloped countries and regions are promoted.

  20. Developing Information Services and Tools to Access and Evaluate Data Quality in Global Satellite-based Precipitation Products

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Z.; Shie, C. L.; Meyer, D. J.

    2017-12-01

    Global satellite-based precipitation products have been widely used in research and applications around the world. Compared to ground-based observations, satellite-based measurements provide precipitation data on a global scale, especially in remote continents and over oceans. Over the years, satellite-based precipitation products have evolved from single sensor and single algorithm to multi-sensors and multi-algorithms. As a result, many satellite-based precipitation products have been enhanced such as spatial and temporal coverages. With inclusion of ground-based measurements, biases of satellite-based precipitation products have been significantly reduced. However, data quality issues still exist and can be caused by many factors such as observations, satellite platform anomaly, algorithms, production, calibration, validation, data services, etc. The NASA Goddard Earth Sciences (GES) Data and Information Services Center (DISC) is home to NASA global precipitation product archives including the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), as well as other global and regional precipitation products. Precipitation is one of the top downloaded and accessed parameters in the GES DISC data archive. Meanwhile, users want to easily locate and obtain data quality information at regional and global scales to better understand how precipitation products perform and how reliable they are. As data service providers, it is necessary to provide an easy access to data quality information, however, such information normally is not available, and when it is available, it is not in one place and difficult to locate. In this presentation, we will present challenges and activities at the GES DISC to address precipitation data quality issues.

  1. Analysis of the Diurnal Variation of the Global Electric Circuit Obtained From Different Numerical Models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jánský, Jaroslav; Lucas, Greg M.; Kalb, Christina; Bayona, Victor; Peterson, Michael J.; Deierling, Wiebke; Flyer, Natasha; Pasko, Victor P.

    2017-12-01

    This work analyzes different current source and conductivity parameterizations and their influence on the diurnal variation of the global electric circuit (GEC). The diurnal variations of the current source parameterizations obtained using electric field and conductivity measurements from plane overflights combined with global Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite data give generally good agreement with measured diurnal variation of the electric field at Vostok, Antarctica, where reference experimental measurements are performed. An approach employing 85 GHz passive microwave observations to infer currents within the GEC is compared and shows the best agreement in amplitude and phase with experimental measurements. To study the conductivity influence, GEC models solving the continuity equation in 3-D are used to calculate atmospheric resistance using yearly averaged conductivity obtained from the global circulation model Community Earth System Model (CESM). Then, using current source parameterization combining mean currents and global counts of electrified clouds, if the exponential conductivity is substituted by the conductivity from CESM, the peak to peak diurnal variation of the ionospheric potential of the GEC decreases from 24% to 20%. The main reason for the change is the presence of clouds while effects of 222Rn ionization, aerosols, and topography are less pronounced. The simulated peak to peak diurnal variation of the electric field at Vostok is increased from 15% to 18% from the diurnal variation of the global current in the GEC if conductivity from CESM is used.

  2. Teaching global engineering in Canada, learning informality of the Global South

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gopakumar, Govind

    2014-07-01

    Globalisation has inspired a wide assortment of curricular initiatives within engineering education in the USA and Europe. This interest could be categorised in multiple directions - international exposure, service learning, or critical understanding and praxis. In Canada, however, there has been far less consideration for integrating globalisation within the engineering curriculum. The recent episode of reform initiated by the Canadian Board of Engineering Accreditation could usher in changes on this front. Situating the development of a course titled Development and Global Engineering within these broader conceptual and organisational impulses, this paper will illuminate a pathway towards understanding globalisation, especially within the Global South, through a comprehension of complexity and informality.

  3. Global Information Infrastructure: The Birth, Vision, and Architecture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Targowski, Andrew S.

    A new world has arrived in which computer and communications technologies will transform the national and global economies into information-driven economies. This is triggering the Information Revolution, which will have political and societal impacts every bit as profound as those of the Industrial Revolution. The 21st century is viewed as one…

  4. GRIN-Global: An International Project to Develop a Global Plant Genebank Information Management System

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The mission of the GRIN-Global Project is to create a new, scalable version of the Germplasm Resource Information System (GRIN) to provide the world’s crop genebanks with a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use plant genetic resource (PGR) information management system. The system will help safeguard PGR ...

  5. 75 FR 70714 - Global Free Flow of Information on the Internet

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-11-18

    .... 100921457-0561-02] RIN 0660-XA20 Global Free Flow of Information on the Internet AGENCY: National... of comment period. SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce's Internet Policy Task Force announces that... on the global free flow of information on the Internet has been reopened and will extend until 5 p.m...

  6. The Global Signal in fMRI: Nuisance or Information?

    PubMed Central

    Nalci, Alican; Falahpour, Maryam

    2017-01-01

    The global signal is widely used as a regressor or normalization factor for removing the effects of global variations in the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. However, there is considerable controversy over its use because of the potential bias that can be introduced when it is applied to the analysis of both task-related and resting-state fMRI studies. In this paper we take a closer look at the global signal, examining in detail the various sources that can contribute to the signal. For the most part, the global signal has been treated as a nuisance term, but there is growing evidence that it may also contain valuable information. We also examine the various ways that the global signal has been used in the analysis of fMRI data, including global signal regression, global signal subtraction, and global signal normalization. Furthermore, we describe new ways for understanding the effects of global signal regression and its relation to the other approaches. PMID:28213118

  7. Information Technology Training in India toward Globalization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yamashita, Katsuhiko

    This paper describes Toshiba‧s training program in Information Technology in India. It is not a simple technology training, but a training for globalization of Japanese engineers so that they can cope with people from different culture and business practices. We first describe why such training program became necessary. We then describe how the training courses and contents are developed. The operation of the training program and our effort in continual improvement are explained. The effectiveness of the program is also evaluated. The training program presented is a first in its kind and we believe that it can contribute to changing Toshiba from inside toward more globalized corporation. We also believe that this kind of overseas training is effective in training young students so that they can cope with globalizing society after graduation.

  8. Linked Open Data in the Global Change Information System (GCIS)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tilmes, Curt A.

    2012-01-01

    The U.S. Global Change Research Program (http://globalchange.gov) coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. The USGCRP is developing a Global Change Information System (GCIS) that will centralize access to data and information related to global change across the U.S. federal government. The first implementation will focus on the 2013 National Climate Assessment (NCA) . (http://assessment.globalchange.gov) The NCA integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the USGCRP; analyzes the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity; and analyzes current trends in global change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100 years. The NCA has received over 500 distinct technical inputs to the process, many of which are reports distilling and synthesizing even more information, coming from thousands of individuals around the federal, state and local governments, academic institutions and non-governmental organizations. The GCIS will present a web-based version of the NCA including annotations linking the findings and content of the NCA with the scientific research, datasets, models, observations, etc. that led to its conclusions. It will use semantic tagging and a linked data approach, assigning globally unique, persistent, resolvable identifiers to all of the related entities and capturing and presenting the relationships between them, both internally and referencing out to other linked data sources and back to agency data centers. The developing W3C PROV Data Model and ontology will be used to capture the provenance trail and present it in both human readable web pages and machine readable formats such as RDF and SPARQL. This will improve visibility into the assessment process, increase

  9. Securing recruitment and obtaining informed consent in minority ethnic groups in the UK.

    PubMed

    Lloyd, Cathy E; Johnson, Mark R D; Mughal, Shanaz; Sturt, Jackie A; Collins, Gary S; Roy, Tapash; Bibi, Rukhsana; Barnett, Anthony H

    2008-03-30

    Previous health research has often explicitly excluded individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds due to perceived cultural and communication difficulties, including studies where there might be language/literacy problems in obtaining informed consent. This study addressed these difficulties by developing audio-recorded methods of obtaining informed consent and recording data. This report outlines 1) our experiences with securing recruitment to a qualitative study investigating alternative methods of data collection, and 2) the development of a standardised process for obtaining informed consent from individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds whose main language does not have an agreed written form. Two researchers from South Asian backgrounds recruited adults with Type 2 diabetes whose main language was spoken and not written, to attend a series of focus groups. A screening tool was used at recruitment in order to assess literacy skills in potential participants. Informed consent was obtained using audio-recordings of the patient information and recording patients' verbal consent. Participants' perceptions of this method of obtaining consent were recorded. Recruitment rates were improved by using telephone compared to face-to-face methods. The screening tool was found to be acceptable by all potential participants. Audio-recorded methods of obtaining informed consent were easy to implement and accepted by all participants. Attrition rates differed according to ethnic group. Snowballing techniques only partly improved participation rates. Audio-recorded methods of obtaining informed consent are an acceptable alternative to written consent in study populations where literacy skills are variable. Further exploration of issues relating to attrition is required, and a range of methods may be necessary in order to maximise response and participation rates.

  10. Gravity effects obtained from global hydrology models in comparison with high precision gravimetric time series

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wziontek, Hartmut; Wilmes, Herbert; Güntner, Andreas; Creutzfeldt, Benjamin

    2010-05-01

    Water mass changes are a major source of variations in residual gravimetric time series obtained from the combination of observations with superconducting and absolute gravimeters. Changes in the local water storage are the main influence, but global variations contribute to the signal significantly. For three European gravity stations, Bad Homburg, Wettzell and Medicina, different global hydrology models are compared. The influence of topographic effects is discussed and due to the long-term stability of the combined gravity time series, inter-annual signals in model data and gravimetric observations are compared. Two sources of influence are discriminated, i.e., the effect of a local zone with an extent of a few kilometers around the gravimetric station and the global contribution beyond 50km. Considering their coarse resolution and uncertainties, local effects calculated from global hydrological models are compared with the in-situ gravity observations and, for the station Wettzell, with local hydrological monitoring data.

  11. Information data systems for a global change technology initiative architecture trade study

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Murray, Nicholas D.

    1991-01-01

    The Global Change Technology Initiative (GCTI) was established to develop technology which will enable use of satellite systems of Earth observations on a global scale, enable use of the observations to predictively model Earth's changes, and provide scientists, government, business, and industry with quick access to the resulting information. At LaRC, a GCTI Architecture Trade Study was undertaken to develop and evaluate the architectural implications to meet the requirements of the global change studies and the eventual implementation of a global change system. The output of the trade study are recommended technologies for the GCTI. That portion of the study concerned with the information data system is documented. The information data system for an earth global change modeling system can be very extensive and beyond affordability in terms of today's costs. Therefore, an incremental approach to gaining a system is most likely. An options approach to levels of capability versus needed technologies was developed. The primary drivers of the requirements for the information data system evaluation were the needed science products, the science measurements, the spacecraft orbits, the instruments configurations, and the spacecraft configurations and their attendant architectures. The science products requirements were not studied here; however, some consideration of the product needs were included in the evaluation results. The information data system technology items were identified from the viewpoint of the desirable overall information system characteristics.

  12. Towards global environmental information and data management

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gurney, Robert; Allison, Lee; Cesar, Roberto; Cossu, Roberto; Dietz, Volkmar; Gemeinholzer, Birgit; Koike, Toshio; Mokrane, Mustapha; Peters, Dale; Thaller-Honold, Svetlana; Treloar, Andrew; Vilotte, Jean-Pierre; Waldmann, Christoph

    2014-05-01

    The Belmont Forum, a coalition of national science agencies from 13 countries, is supporting an 18-month effort to implement a 'Knowledge Hub' community-building and strategy development program as a first step to coordinate and streamline international efforts on community governance, interoperability and system architectures so that environmental data and information can be exchanged internationally and across subject domains easily and efficiently. This initiative represents a first step to build collaboratively an international capacity and e-infrastructure framework to address societally relevant global environmental change challenges. The project will deliver a community-owned strategy and implementation plan, which will prioritize international funding opportunities for Belmont Forum members to build pilots and exemplars in order to accelerate delivery of end-to end global change decision support systems. In 2012, the Belmont Forum held a series of public town hall meetings, and a two-day scoping meeting of scientists and program officers, which concluded that transformative approaches and innovative technologies are needed for heterogeneous data/information to be integrated and made interoperable for researchers in disparate fields and for myriad uses across international, institutional, disciplinary, spatial and temporal boundaries. Pooling Belmont Forum members' resources to bring communities together for further integration, cooperation, and leveraging of existing initiatives and resources has the potential to develop the e-infrastructure framework necessary to solve pressing environmental problems, and to support the aims of many international data sharing initiatives. The plan is expected to serve as the foundation of future Belmont Forum calls for proposals for e-Infrastructures and Data Management. The Belmont Forum is uniquely able to align resources of major national funders to support global environmental change research on specific technical and

  13. GRIN-Global: An International Project to Develop a Global Plant Genebank and Information Management System

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The mission of the GRIN-Global Project is to create a new, scalable version of the Germplasm Resource Information System (GRIN) to provide the world's crop genebanks with a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use plant genetic resource (PGR) information management system. The system will help safeguard PGR ...

  14. 50 CFR 23.86 - How can I obtain information on a CoP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 9 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false How can I obtain information on a CoP? 23... FAUNA AND FLORA (CITES) CITES Administration § 23.86 How can I obtain information on a CoP? As we receive information on an upcoming CoP from the CITES Secretariat, we will notify the public either...

  15. 50 CFR 23.86 - How can I obtain information on a CoP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 6 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false How can I obtain information on a CoP? 23... FAUNA AND FLORA (CITES) CITES Administration § 23.86 How can I obtain information on a CoP? As we receive information on an upcoming CoP from the CITES Secretariat, we will notify the public either...

  16. 50 CFR 23.86 - How can I obtain information on a CoP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 9 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false How can I obtain information on a CoP? 23... FAUNA AND FLORA (CITES) CITES Administration § 23.86 How can I obtain information on a CoP? As we receive information on an upcoming CoP from the CITES Secretariat, we will notify the public either...

  17. 50 CFR 23.86 - How can I obtain information on a CoP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 9 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false How can I obtain information on a CoP? 23... FAUNA AND FLORA (CITES) CITES Administration § 23.86 How can I obtain information on a CoP? As we receive information on an upcoming CoP from the CITES Secretariat, we will notify the public either...

  18. 50 CFR 23.86 - How can I obtain information on a CoP?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 8 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false How can I obtain information on a CoP? 23... FAUNA AND FLORA (CITES) CITES Administration § 23.86 How can I obtain information on a CoP? As we receive information on an upcoming CoP from the CITES Secretariat, we will notify the public either...

  19. 77 FR 18266 - Meeting of the Department of Justice Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative Federal...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-03-27

    ... Department of Justice Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative Federal Advisory Committee AGENCY: Office... meeting of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Federal Advisory Committee (GAC) to discuss the Global Initiative, as described at www.it.ojp.gov/global . DATES...

  20. 12 CFR 232.3 - Financial information exception for obtaining and using medical information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... that the debt is current and that the consumer has no delinquencies in her repayment history. If the..., mental, or behavioral health, condition or history, type of treatment, or prognosis into account as part... example, to obtain and use information about: (i) The dollar amount, repayment terms, repayment history...

  1. GRIN-Global: An International Project to Develop a Global Plant Genebank and Information Management System

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The mission of the GRIN-Global Project is to create a new, scalable version of the Germplasm Resource Information System (GRIN) to provide the world’s crop genebanks with a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use plant genetic resource (PGR) information management system. The system will help safeguard PGR ...

  2. GRIN-Global: An International Project to Develop a Global Plant Genebank and Information Management System

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The mission of the GRIN-Global Project is to create a new, scalable version of the Germplasm Resource Information System (GRIN) to provide the world’s crop genebanks with a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use plant genetic resource (PGR) information management system. The system will help safeguard PGR...

  3. Architectural Design for the Global Legal Information Network

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kalpakis, Konstantinos

    1999-01-01

    In this report, we provide a summary of our activities regarding the goals, requirements analysis, design, and prototype implementation for the Global Legal Information Network, a joint effort between the Law Library of Congress and NASA.

  4. 40 CFR 2.311 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act. 2.311 Section 2.311 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY GENERAL PUBLIC INFORMATION Confidentiality of Business Information § 2.311 Special rules governing...

  5. Global climatology of planetary boundary layer top obtained from multi-satellite GPS RO observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Basha, Ghouse; Kishore, P.; Ratnam, M. Venkat; Ravindra Babu, S.; Velicogna, Isabella; Jiang, Jonathan H.; Ao, Chi O.

    2018-05-01

    Accurate estimation of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) top is essential for air quality prediction, weather forecast, and assessment of regional and global climate models. In this article, the long-term climatology of seasonal, global distribution of PBL is presented by using global positioning system radio occultation (GPSRO) based payloads such as Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC), Communication/Navigation Outage Forecast System (C/NOFS), TerraSAR-X, and The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) from the year 2006-2015. We used Wavelet Covariance Transform (WCT) technique for precise PBL top identification. The derived PBL top from GPSRO data is rigorously evaluated with GPS radiosonde data over Gadanki. Significant seasonal variation is noticed in both radiosonde and GPSRO observations. Further, we compared the PBL obtained GPS RO with global radiosonde network and observed very good correlation. The number of occultations reaching down to 500 m and retrieval rate of PBL top from WCT method is very high in mid-latitudes compared to tropical latitudes. The global distribution of PBL top shows significant seasonal variation with higher during summer followed by spring, fall, and minimum in winter. In the vicinity of Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), the PBL top is high over eastern Pacific compared to other regions. The ERA-Interim reanalysis data underestimate the PBL top compared to GPS RO observations due to different measurement techniques. The seasonal variation of global averaged PBL top over land and ocean shows contrasting features at different latitude bands.

  6. 78 FR 17232 - Meeting of the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative Federal Advisory Committee

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-03-20

    ... DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Office of Justice Programs [OJP (BJA) Docket No. 1616] Meeting of the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative Federal Advisory Committee AGENCY: Office of Justice Programs (OJP... Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Federal Advisory Committee (GAC) to discuss the Global Initiative, as...

  7. Global High-Tech Economy Futures in the Information Age.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Joseph, Earl C.

    It has become necessary to understand the expected trends and forces-of-change behind the global realities of technological advancement and the information age. The emergence of a new information age societal framework is rapidly altering the way in which social, business, economic, educational, and political exchanges are conducted. Motivating…

  8. The creation of a global telemedical information society.

    PubMed

    Marsh, A

    1998-01-01

    Healthcare is a major candidate for improvement in any vision of the kinds of "information highways" and "information societies" that are now being visualized. The medical information management market is one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the healthcare device industry. The expected revenue by the year 2000 is US$21 billion. Telemedicine currently accounts for only a small segment but is expanding rapidly. In the United States more than 60% of federal telemedicine projects were initiated in the last two years. The concept of telemedicine captures much of what is developing in terms of technology implementations, especially if it is combined with the growth of the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW). It is foreseen that the World Wide Web (WWW) will become the most important communication medium of any future information society. If the development of such a society is to be on a global scale it should not be allowed to develop in an ad hoc manner. The Euromed Project has identified 20 building blocks resulting in 39 steps requiring multi-disciplinary collaborations. Since, the organization of information is therefore critical especially when concerning healthcare the Euromed Project has also introduced a new (global) standard called "Virtual Medical Worlds" which provides the potential to organize existing medical information and provide the foundations for its integration into future forms of medical information systems. Virtual Medical Worlds, based on 3D reconstructed medical models, utilizes the WWW as a navigational medium to remotely access multimedia medical information systems. The visualisation and manipulation of hyper-graphical 3D "body/organ" templates and patient-specific 3D/4D/and VR models is an attempt to define an information infrastructure in an emerging WWW-based telemedical information society.

  9. The Creation of a global telemedical information society.

    PubMed

    Marsh, A

    1998-04-01

    Healthcare is a major candidate for improvement in any vision of the kinds of 'information highways' and 'information societies' that are now being visualized. The medical information management market is one of the largest and fastest growing segments of the healthcare device industry. The expected revenue by the year 2000 is US$21 billion. Telemedicine currently accounts for only a small segment but is expanding rapidly. In the USA more than 60% of federal telemedicine projects were initiated in the last 2 years. The concept of telemedicine captures much of what is developing in terms of technology implementations, especially if it is combined with the growth of the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW). It is foreseen that the World Wide Web (WWW) will become the most important communication medium of any future information society. If the development of such a society is to be on a global scale it should not be allowed to develop in an ad hoc manner. For this reason, the Euromed Project has identified 20 building blocks resulting in 39 steps requiring multi-disciplinary collaborations. Since, the organization of information is therefore critical especially when concerning healthcare the Euromed Project has also introduced a new (global) standard called 'Virtual Medical Worlds' which provides the potential to organize existing medical information and provide the foundations for its integration into future forms of medical information systems. Virtual Medical Worlds, based on 3D reconstructed medical models, utilizes the WWW as a navigational medium to remotely access multi-media medical information systems. The visualization and manipulation of hyper-graphical 3D 'body/organ' templates and patient-specific 3D/4D/and VR models is an attempt to define an information infrastructure in an emerging WWW-based telemedical information society.

  10. 40 CFR 166.34 - EPA review of information obtained in connection with emergency exemptions.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false EPA review of information obtained in... PESTICIDES UNDER EMERGENCY CONDITIONS Specific, Quarantine, and Public Health Exemptions § 166.34 EPA review of information obtained in connection with emergency exemptions. EPA shall review information...

  11. Information transfer network of global market indices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Yup; Kim, Jinho; Yook, Soon-Hyung

    2015-07-01

    We study the topological properties of the information transfer networks (ITN) of the global financial market indices for six different periods. ITN is a directed weighted network, in which the direction and weight are determined by the transfer entropy between market indices. By applying the threshold method, it is found that ITN undergoes a crossover from the complete graph to a small-world (SW) network. SW regime of ITN for a global crisis is found to be much more enhanced than that for ordinary periods. Furthermore, when ITN is in SW regime, the average clustering coefficient is found to be synchronized with average volatility of markets. We also compare the results with the topological properties of correlation networks.

  12. Incorporating Global Information Security and Assurance in I.S. Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    White, Garry L.; Hewitt, Barbara; Kruck, S. E.

    2013-01-01

    Over the years, the news media has reported numerous information security incidents. Because of identity theft, terrorism, and other criminal activities, President Obama has made information security a national priority. Not only is information security and assurance an American priority, it is also a global issue. This paper discusses the…

  13. Pennsylvania StreamStats--A web-based application for obtaining water-resource-related information

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stuckey, Marla H.; Hoffman, Scott A.

    2010-01-01

    StreamStats is a national web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) application, developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., to provide a variety of water-resource-related information. Users can easily obtain descriptive information, basin characteristics, and streamflow statistics for USGS streamgages and ungaged stream locations throughout Pennsylvania. StreamStats also allows users to search upstream and (or) downstream from user-selected points to identify locations of and obtain information for water-resource-related activities, such as dams and streamgages.

  14. 32 CFR Appendix G to Part 275 - Releasing Information Obtained From Financial Institutions

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Releasing Information Obtained From Financial Institutions G Appendix G to Part 275 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) OFFICE OF THE... FINANCIAL PRIVACY ACT OF 1978 Pt. 275, App. G Appendix G to Part 275—Releasing Information Obtained From...

  15. 32 CFR Appendix G to Part 275 - Releasing Information Obtained From Financial Institutions

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Releasing Information Obtained From Financial Institutions G Appendix G to Part 275 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) OFFICE OF THE... FINANCIAL PRIVACY ACT OF 1978 Pt. 275, App. G Appendix G to Part 275—Releasing Information Obtained From...

  16. 32 CFR Appendix G to Part 275 - Releasing Information Obtained From Financial Institutions

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Releasing Information Obtained From Financial Institutions G Appendix G to Part 275 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) OFFICE OF THE... FINANCIAL PRIVACY ACT OF 1978 Pt. 275, App. G Appendix G to Part 275—Releasing Information Obtained From...

  17. 32 CFR Appendix G to Part 275 - Releasing Information Obtained From Financial Institutions

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Releasing Information Obtained From Financial Institutions G Appendix G to Part 275 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) OFFICE OF THE... FINANCIAL PRIVACY ACT OF 1978 Pt. 275, App. G Appendix G to Part 275—Releasing Information Obtained From...

  18. The Role of Global and Local Visual Information during Gaze-Cued Orienting of Attention.

    PubMed

    Munsters, Nicolette M; van den Boomen, Carlijn; Hooge, Ignace T C; Kemner, Chantal

    2016-01-01

    Gaze direction is an important social communication tool. Global and local visual information are known to play specific roles in processing socially relevant information from a face. The current study investigated whether global visual information has a primary role during gaze-cued orienting of attention and, as such, may influence quality of interaction. Adults performed a gaze-cueing task in which a centrally presented face cued (valid or invalid) the location of a peripheral target through a gaze shift. We measured brain activity (electroencephalography) towards the cue and target and behavioral responses (manual and saccadic reaction times) towards the target. The faces contained global (i.e. lower spatial frequencies), local (i.e. higher spatial frequencies), or a selection of both global and local (i.e. mid-band spatial frequencies) visual information. We found a gaze cue-validity effect (i.e. valid versus invalid), but no interaction effects with spatial frequency content. Furthermore, behavioral responses towards the target were in all cue conditions slower when lower spatial frequencies were not present in the gaze cue. These results suggest that whereas gaze-cued orienting of attention can be driven by both global and local visual information, global visual information determines the speed of behavioral responses towards other entities appearing in the surrounding of gaze cue stimuli.

  19. A Global Information Exchange (GIE) Project in a Graduate Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Thirunarayanan, M. O.; Coccaro-Pons, Jennifer

    2016-01-01

    Graduate students who were enrolled in an introductory educational technology course that met face-to-face completed a Global Information Exchange (GIE) project. The goal of the project was to promote global awareness among the graduate students who were also classroom teachers, and by extension their K-12 students. The graduate students, who also…

  20. Entropy-Based Analysis and Bioinformatics-Inspired Integration of Global Economic Information Transfer

    PubMed Central

    An, Sungbae; Kwon, Young-Kyun; Yoon, Sungroh

    2013-01-01

    The assessment of information transfer in the global economic network helps to understand the current environment and the outlook of an economy. Most approaches on global networks extract information transfer based mainly on a single variable. This paper establishes an entirely new bioinformatics-inspired approach to integrating information transfer derived from multiple variables and develops an international economic network accordingly. In the proposed methodology, we first construct the transfer entropies (TEs) between various intra- and inter-country pairs of economic time series variables, test their significances, and then use a weighted sum approach to aggregate information captured in each TE. Through a simulation study, the new method is shown to deliver better information integration compared to existing integration methods in that it can be applied even when intra-country variables are correlated. Empirical investigation with the real world data reveals that Western countries are more influential in the global economic network and that Japan has become less influential following the Asian currency crisis. PMID:23300959

  1. Entropy-based analysis and bioinformatics-inspired integration of global economic information transfer.

    PubMed

    Kim, Jinkyu; Kim, Gunn; An, Sungbae; Kwon, Young-Kyun; Yoon, Sungroh

    2013-01-01

    The assessment of information transfer in the global economic network helps to understand the current environment and the outlook of an economy. Most approaches on global networks extract information transfer based mainly on a single variable. This paper establishes an entirely new bioinformatics-inspired approach to integrating information transfer derived from multiple variables and develops an international economic network accordingly. In the proposed methodology, we first construct the transfer entropies (TEs) between various intra- and inter-country pairs of economic time series variables, test their significances, and then use a weighted sum approach to aggregate information captured in each TE. Through a simulation study, the new method is shown to deliver better information integration compared to existing integration methods in that it can be applied even when intra-country variables are correlated. Empirical investigation with the real world data reveals that Western countries are more influential in the global economic network and that Japan has become less influential following the Asian currency crisis.

  2. The effect of giving global coronary risk information to adults: a systematic review.

    PubMed

    Sheridan, Stacey L; Viera, Anthony J; Krantz, Mori J; Ice, Christa L; Steinman, Lesley E; Peters, Karen E; Kopin, Laurie A; Lungelow, Danielle

    2010-02-08

    Global coronary heart disease (CHD) risk estimation (ie, a quantitative estimate of a patient's chances of CHD calculated by combining risk factors in an empirical equation) is recommended as a starting point for primary prevention efforts in all US adults. Whether it improves outcomes is currently unknown. To assess the effect of providing global CHD risk information to adults, we performed a systematic evidence review. We searched MEDLINE for the years 1980 to 2008, Psych Info, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Database and included English-language articles that met prespecified inclusion criteria. Two reviewers independently reviewed titles, abstracts, and articles for inclusion and assessed study quality. We identified 20 articles, reporting on 18 unique fair or good quality studies (including 14 randomized controlled studies). These showed that global CHD risk information alone or with accompanying education increased the accuracy of perceived risk and probably increased intent to start therapy. Studies with repeated risk information or risk information and repeated doses of counseling showed small significant reductions in predicted CHD risk (absolute differences, -0.2% to -2% over 10 years in studies using risk estimates derived from Framingham equations). Studies providing global risk information at only 1 point in time seemed ineffective. Global CHD risk information seems to improve the accuracy of risk perception and may increase intent to initiate CHD prevention among individuals at moderate to high risk. The effect of global risk presentation on more distal outcomes is less clear and seems to be related to the intensity of accompanying interventions.

  3. Effects of Information Capitalism and Globalization on Teaching and Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Adeoye, Blessing F., Ed.; Tomei, Lawrence, Ed.

    2014-01-01

    As computers and Internet connections become widely available in schools and classrooms, it is critical to examine cross-cultural issues in the utilization of information and communication technologies. "Effects of Information Capitalism and Globalization on Teaching and Learning" examines issues concerning emerging multimedia…

  4. 32 CFR Appendix A to Part 275 - Obtaining Basic Identifying Account Information

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Obtaining Basic Identifying Account Information... Information A. A DoD law enforcement office may issue a formal written request for basic identifying account... only the above specified basic identifying information concerning a customer's account. C. A format for...

  5. 48 CFR 1809.505-4 - Obtaining access to sensitive information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... Organizational and Consultant Conflicts of Interest 1809.505-4 Obtaining access to sensitive information. (b) In... support management activities and administrative functions. The Assistant Administrator for Procurement... require contractors and subcontractors and their employees in procurements that support management...

  6. Using Internet Search Engines to Obtain Medical Information: A Comparative Study

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Liupu; Wang, Juexin; Wang, Michael; Li, Yong; Liang, Yanchun

    2012-01-01

    Background The Internet has become one of the most important means to obtain health and medical information. It is often the first step in checking for basic information about a disease and its treatment. The search results are often useful to general users. Various search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com can play an important role in obtaining medical information for both medical professionals and lay people. However, the usability and effectiveness of various search engines for medical information have not been comprehensively compared and evaluated. Objective To compare major Internet search engines in their usability of obtaining medical and health information. Methods We applied usability testing as a software engineering technique and a standard industry practice to compare the four major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com) in obtaining health and medical information. For this purpose, we searched the keyword breast cancer in Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com and saved the results of the top 200 links from each search engine. We combined nonredundant links from the four search engines and gave them to volunteer users in an alphabetical order. The volunteer users evaluated the websites and scored each website from 0 to 10 (lowest to highest) based on the usefulness of the content relevant to breast cancer. A medical expert identified six well-known websites related to breast cancer in advance as standards. We also used five keywords associated with breast cancer defined in the latest release of Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) and analyzed their occurrence in the websites. Results Each search engine provided rich information related to breast cancer in the search results. All six standard websites were among the top 30 in search results of all four search engines. Google had the best search validity (in terms of whether a website could be opened), followed by Bing, Ask.com, and Yahoo!. The search

  7. Using Internet search engines to obtain medical information: a comparative study.

    PubMed

    Wang, Liupu; Wang, Juexin; Wang, Michael; Li, Yong; Liang, Yanchun; Xu, Dong

    2012-05-16

    The Internet has become one of the most important means to obtain health and medical information. It is often the first step in checking for basic information about a disease and its treatment. The search results are often useful to general users. Various search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com can play an important role in obtaining medical information for both medical professionals and lay people. However, the usability and effectiveness of various search engines for medical information have not been comprehensively compared and evaluated. To compare major Internet search engines in their usability of obtaining medical and health information. We applied usability testing as a software engineering technique and a standard industry practice to compare the four major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com) in obtaining health and medical information. For this purpose, we searched the keyword breast cancer in Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask.com and saved the results of the top 200 links from each search engine. We combined nonredundant links from the four search engines and gave them to volunteer users in an alphabetical order. The volunteer users evaluated the websites and scored each website from 0 to 10 (lowest to highest) based on the usefulness of the content relevant to breast cancer. A medical expert identified six well-known websites related to breast cancer in advance as standards. We also used five keywords associated with breast cancer defined in the latest release of Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) and analyzed their occurrence in the websites. Each search engine provided rich information related to breast cancer in the search results. All six standard websites were among the top 30 in search results of all four search engines. Google had the best search validity (in terms of whether a website could be opened), followed by Bing, Ask.com, and Yahoo!. The search results highly overlapped between the

  8. Requirements for a Global Greenhouse Gas Information System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duren, R.; Boland, S.; Lempert, R.; Miller, C.

    2008-12-01

    A global greenhouse gas information system will prove a critical component of any successful effort to mitigate climate change which relies on limiting the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. The system will provide the situational awareness necessary to actively reduce emissions, influence land use change, and sequester carbon. The information from such a system will be subject to intense scrutiny. Therefore, an effective system must openly and transparently produce data of unassailable quality. A global greenhouse gas information system will likely require a combination of space-and air-based remote- sensing assets, ground-based measurements, carbon cycle modeling and self-reporting. The specific requirements on such a system will be shaped by the degree of international cooperation it enjoys and the needs of the policy regime it aims to support, which might range from verifying treaty obligations, to certifying the tradable permits and offsets underlying a market in greenhouse gas emission reductions, to providing a comprehensive inventory of high and low emitters that could be used by non-governmental organizations and other international actors. While some technical studies have examined particular system components in single scenarios, there remains a need for a comprehensive survey of the range of potential requirements, options, and strategies for the overall system. We have initiated such a survey and recently hosted a workshop which engaged a diverse community of stakeholders to begin synthesizing requirements for such a system, with an initial focus on carbon dioxide. In this paper we describe our plan for completing the definition of the requirements, options, and strategies for a global greenhouse gas monitoring system. We discuss our overall approach and provide a status on the initial requirements synthesis activity.

  9. 40 CFR 2.310 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Comprehensive Environmental...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980... information obtained under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as amended. (a) Definitions. For purposes of this section: (1) Act means the Comprehensive...

  10. Running a network on a shoestring: the Global Invasive Species Information Network

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Simpson, Annie; Graham, James J; Newman, Gregory J.; Bargeron, Chuck T.

    2015-01-01

    The Global Invasive Species Information Network (GISIN) was conceptualized in 2004 to aggregate and disseminate invasive species data in a standardized way. A decade later the GISIN community has implemented a data portal and three of six GISIN data aggregation models in the GISIN data exchange Protocol, including invasive species status information, resource URLs, and occurrence data. The portal is based on a protocol developed by representatives from 15 countries and 27 organizations of the global invasive species information management community. The GISIN has 19 data providers sharing 34,343 species status records, 1,693,073 occurrences, and 15,601 resource URLs. While the GISIN's goal is to be global, much of its data and funding are provided by the United States. Several initiatives use the GISIN as their information backbone, such as the Great Lakes Early Detection Network (GLEDN) and the North American Invasive Species Network (NAISN). Here we share several success stories and organizational challenges that remain.

  11. The New Global Information Economy: Implications and Recommendations for Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs)

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2005-06-01

    control number. 1 . REPORT DATE JUN 2005 2. REPORT TYPE 3 . DATES COVERED 00-00-2005 to 00-00-2005 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE The New Global Information...The New Global Information Economy Tim Bass SilkRoad , Inc. Implications and Recommendations for Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) ICCRTS 16...June 2005 © 2005, SilkRoad , Inc. Report Documentation Page Form ApprovedOMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden for the collection of information is

  12. Global Information Justice: Rights, Responsibilities, and Caring Connections.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Martha

    2001-01-01

    Explains the concept of global information justice and describes it as an ethical ideal, as an organizing principle for a model for analysis, and as a direction for policy making. Discusses the use of new technologies; access to technology; ownership; privacy; security; community; and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (Author/LRW)

  13. Progress toward an Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (IG3IS)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    DeCola, P.; Butler, J. H.; Stanitski, D.; Tarasova, O. A.; Terblanche, D. E.; Duren, R. M.; Gurney, K. R.; Manning, A.; Reimann, S.; Ciais, P.; Arnold, T.; Burston, J.; Rayner, P. J.; Wofsy, S. C.; Hamburg, S.; Zavala-Araiza, D.; Miller, J. B.; Gerbig, C.; Vogel, F. R.; Canadell, J.

    2016-12-01

    Accurate and precise atmospheric long-term measurements of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations have revealed the rapid and unceasing rise of global GHG concentrations due to human socioeconomic activity. Long-term observations also show a resulting rise in global temperatures and evidence of negative impacts on society. In response to this mounting evidence, nations, sub-national governments, private enterprises and individuals are establishing and accelerating efforts to reduce GHG emissions while meeting the needs for global development and increasing energy access. With this motivation, WMO and its partners have called for an Integrated Global Greenhouse Information System (IG3IS). The IG3IS will serve as an international coordinating mechanism to establish and propagate consistent methods and standards to help assess emission-reduction actions. For the IG3IS initiative to succeed the end users must understand, trust, and recognize the value of the information they receive, and act more effectively in response. Over time, the IG3IS framework will be capable of promoting and accepting advancing technical capabilities (e.g., new satellite observations), continually improving the quality of and confidence in such information. By combining accurate atmospheric measurements with enhanced socioeconomic activity data and model analyses we can meet the overarching goals of IG3IS to: Reduce uncertainty of emission inventory reporting, Locate, quantify and prioritize previously unknown emission reduction opportunities, and Provide national and sub-national governments with timely and quantified information to support their assessment of progress towards their mitigation goals. An effective IG3IS will provide on-going, observation-based information on the relative success of GHG management efforts on policy-relevant scales and the response of the global carbon cycle to a warming world. The presentation will cover the principles and objectives of IG3IS, as well as progress

  14. 40 CFR 712.7 - Report of readily obtainable information for subparts B and C.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Report of readily obtainable... Report of readily obtainable information for subparts B and C. TSCA section 8(a) authorizes EPA to require persons to report information that is known to or reasonably ascertainable by them. For purposes...

  15. Interfacing remote sensing and geographic information systems for global environmental change research

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lee, Jae K.; Randolph, J. C.; Lulla, Kamlesh P.; Helfert, Michael R.

    1993-01-01

    Because changes in the Earth's environment have become major global issues, continuous, longterm scientific information is required to assess global problems such as deforestation, desertification, greenhouse effects and climate variations. Global change studies require understanding of interactions of complex processes regulating the Earth system. Space-based Earth observation is an essential element in global change research for documenting changes in Earth environment. It provides synoptic data for conceptual predictive modeling of future environmental change. This paper provides a brief overview of remote sensing technology from the perspective of global change research.

  16. Towards Social Radiology as an Information Infrastructure: Reconciling the Local With the Global

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    The current widespread use of medical images and imaging procedures in clinical practice and patient diagnosis has brought about an increase in the demand for sharing medical imaging studies among health professionals in an easy and effective manner. This article reveals the existence of a polarization between the local and global demands for radiology practice. While there are no major barriers for sharing such studies, when access is made from a (local) picture archive and communication system (PACS) within the domain of a healthcare organization, there are a number of impediments for sharing studies among health professionals on a global scale. Social radiology as an information infrastructure involves the notion of a shared infrastructure as a public good, affording a social space where people, organizations and technical components may spontaneously form associations in order to share clinical information linked to patient care and radiology practice. This article shows however, that such polarization establishes a tension between local and global demands, which hinders the emergence of social radiology as an information infrastructure. Based on an analysis of the social space for radiology practice, the present article has observed that this tension persists due to the inertia of a locally installed base in radiology departments, for which common teleradiology models are not truly capable of reorganizing as a global social space for radiology practice. Reconciling the local with the global signifies integrating PACS and teleradiology into an evolving, secure, heterogeneous, shared, open information infrastructure where the conceptual boundaries between (local) PACS and (global) teleradiology are transparent, signaling the emergence of social radiology as an information infrastructure. PMID:25600710

  17. Quantitative Metrics for Provenance in the Global Change Information System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sherman, R. A.; Tipton, K.; Elamparuthy, A.

    2017-12-01

    The Global Change Information System (GCIS) is an open-source web-based resource to provide traceable provenance for government climate information, particularly the National Climate Assessment and other climate science reports from the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Since 2014, GCIS has been adding and updating information and linking records to make the system as complete as possible for the key reports. Our total count of records has grown to well over 20,000, but until recently there hasn't been an easy way to measure how well all those records were serving the mission of providing provenance. The GCIS team has recently established quantitative measures of whether each record has sufficient metadata and linkages to be useful for users of our featured climate reports. We will describe our metrics and show how they can be used to guide future development of GCIS and aid users of government climate data.

  18. 28 CFR 51.37 - Obtaining information from the submitting authority.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Obtaining information from the submitting authority. 51.37 Section 51.37 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (CONTINUED) PROCEDURES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF SECTION 5 OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965, AS AMENDED Processing of Submissions § 51.37...

  19. Legal and psychological considerations for obtaining informed consent for reverse total shoulder arthroplasty.

    PubMed

    Blackwood, Craig; Dixon, Jen; Reilly, Peter; Emery, Roger J

    2017-01-01

    This paper seeks to outline recent legal developments and requirements pertinent to obtaining informed consent. We argue that this is of particular relevance to patients considering a reverse total shoulder arthroplasty, due to the high complication rate associated with this procedure. By examining the cognitive processes involved in decision-making, and other clinician-related factors such as delivery of information, gender bias and conflict of interest, we explore some of the barriers that can undermine the processes of shared decision-making and obtaining genuine informed consent. We argue that these issues highlight the importance for surgeons in understanding the cognitive processes and other influential factors involved in patients' comprehension and decision-making. We recommend, based on strong evidence, that decision aids could prove useful in overcoming such challenges and could provide one way of mitigating the ethical, professional and legal consequences of failing to obtain proper informed consent. They are not widely used in orthopaedics at present, although it would be in the interests of both the surgeon and patient for such measures to be explored.

  20. Legal and psychological considerations for obtaining informed consent for reverse total shoulder arthroplasty

    PubMed Central

    Blackwood, Craig; Reilly, Peter; Emery, Roger J

    2016-01-01

    This paper seeks to outline recent legal developments and requirements pertinent to obtaining informed consent. We argue that this is of particular relevance to patients considering a reverse total shoulder arthroplasty, due to the high complication rate associated with this procedure. By examining the cognitive processes involved in decision-making, and other clinician-related factors such as delivery of information, gender bias and conflict of interest, we explore some of the barriers that can undermine the processes of shared decision-making and obtaining genuine informed consent. We argue that these issues highlight the importance for surgeons in understanding the cognitive processes and other influential factors involved in patients’ comprehension and decision-making. We recommend, based on strong evidence, that decision aids could prove useful in overcoming such challenges and could provide one way of mitigating the ethical, professional and legal consequences of failing to obtain proper informed consent. They are not widely used in orthopaedics at present, although it would be in the interests of both the surgeon and patient for such measures to be explored. PMID:28572846

  1. 25 CFR 162.520 - Who owns the energy resource information obtained under the WEEL?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... AND WATER LEASES AND PERMITS Wind and Solar Resource Leases Weels § 162.520 Who owns the energy resource information obtained under the WEEL? (a) The WEEL must specify the ownership of any energy... 25 Indians 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Who owns the energy resource information obtained under...

  2. 25 CFR 162.520 - Who owns the energy resource information obtained under the WEEL?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... AND WATER LEASES AND PERMITS Wind and Solar Resource Leases Weels § 162.520 Who owns the energy resource information obtained under the WEEL? (a) The WEEL must specify the ownership of any energy... 25 Indians 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Who owns the energy resource information obtained under...

  3. Medan City: Informality and the Historical Global City

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sudarmadji, N.; Tyaghita, B.; Astuti, P. T.; Etleen, D.

    2018-05-01

    As projected by UN that two-thirds of Indonesia’s population will live in urban areas by 2050, rapid urbanization is happening in Indonesian cities. Initial research on eight Indonesian Cities (which includes Medan, Jatinegara, Bandung, Surakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Balikpapan, and Manado) by Tunas Nusa Foundation since 2012 shows that urbanization of each city has happened throughout history creating cultural, economic, and environmental networks that are distinct from one city to another. While the networks remain until today and continuously shapes the urban agglomeration pattern, not all parts of the city could undergo subsequent development that confirms the existing pattern, leading to the creation informality. Nor could it make future planning that comprehends the nature of its integrated urban dynamic beyond its current administrative authority. In this paper, we would like to share our study for Medan, North Sumatra as it shows a portrait of a city with a long relationship to a global network since the Maritime trade era. Medan has become home to many ethnic groups which have sailed and migrated as part of a global economic agenda creating a strong economic network between port cities along the Malacca Strait. The city has kept its role in the global economic network until today, to name a few, becoming the frontier for the Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle. While we celebrate Medan’s potential to become a global city with major infrastructure development as well as cultural assets as its advantage in the future, we argue that microscale cohesion supported by government policy in agreed planning documents are fundamental for the city to thrive amidst the challenges it is facing. Yet, these cultural assets, as well as micro scale cohesion in Medan City today, are still undermined. Thus, informality in Medan exists as result of ignorance and marginalization of certain socio-cultural groups, abandoning places and identity, as well as the

  4. Towards a Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (GHGIS)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duren, Riley; Butler, James; Rotman, Doug; Miller, Charles; Decola, Phil; Sheffner, Edwin; Tucker, Compton; Mitchiner, John; Jonietz, Karl; Dimotakis, Paul

    2010-05-01

    Over the next few years, an increasing number of entities ranging from international, national, and regional governments, to businesses and private land-owners, are likely to become more involved in efforts to limit atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. In such a world, geospatially resolved information about the location, amount, and rate of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will be needed, as well as the stocks and flows of all forms of carbon through terrestrial ecosystems and in the oceans. The ability to implement policies that limit GHG concentrations would be enhanced by a global, open, and transparent greenhouse gas information system (GHGIS). An operational and scientifically robust GHGIS would combine ground-based and space-based observations, carbon-cycle modeling, GHG inventories, meta-analysis, and an extensive data integration and distribution system, to provide information about sources, sinks, and fluxes of greenhouse gases at policy-relevant temporal and spatial scales. The GHGIS effort was initiated in 2008 as a grassroots inter-agency collaboration intended to rigorously identify the needs for such a system, assess the capabilities of current assets, and suggest priorities for future research and development. We will present a status of the GHGIS effort including our latest analysis and ideas for potential near-term pilot projects with potential relevance to European initiatives including the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) and the Integrated Carbon Observing System (ICOS).

  5. [The meaning of autonomy in Chinese culture: obtaining informed consent for operation].

    PubMed

    Lin, Mei-Ling; Wu, Jo Yung-Wei; Huang, Mei-Chih

    2008-10-01

    The purpose of gaining the patient's informed consent is ethical, lying in respect for his or her autonomy, and such consent forms the foundation for the performance of clinical medical treatment. In order to respect the patient's autonomy, for example, during decisions about operations, doctors have the obligation to clearly explain that patient's medical condition to him/her. A thorough briefing should be given prior to the obtaining of the patients' consent. In fulfillment of their duties as medical professionals, both doctors and nurses should be involved in clinically informing patients as well as in obtaining their signature for operation and anesthesia. Although informing patients about their physical state is not the responsibility of nurses, it remains absolutely necessary for nurses to understand how people in Asian cultures understand autonomy. This paper begins with a discussion of autonomy in ethics, and then outlines the differences between the Eastern and Western concepts of autonomy, before discussing the obtaining of the signature of consent, a process performed by the nursing staff during clinical treatment, and resulting in the provision of such signatures by patients with the legal capacity to provide them.

  6. The Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN): Putting the Pieces Together

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jones, H.; Shumake, J.; Trtanj, J.

    2017-12-01

    Human exposure to extreme heat is one of the principal and most manageable impacts of climate on human health. Yet, every year worldwide, tens of thousands of people die as a result of avoidable heat-induced health consequences and countless others experience reduced labor productivity, physiological stress and ill health. The IPCC predicts with high confidence, that the observed trend of longer lasting, more frequent, more intense, and earlier onset heat waves will continue into the future. This situation requires the global health community to aggressively confront this recognized risk. Many countries and cities worldwide have developed heat action plans or heat health early warning systems, but these efforts are only connected in an ad-hoc fashion, use a broad range of non-standardized tools, methods, and approaches, and lack a clear mechanism to learn from each other in order to more rapidly advance health protection. To address this gap and accelerate heat health protection, the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN) was launched in June 2016, by the WMO/WHO joint office for Climate and Health and the NOAA Climate Program Office. GHHIN is envisioned to be an independent, voluntary, member driven forum of scientists, professionals, and policymakers focused on enhancing and multiplying the global and local learning and resilience-building for heat health that is already occurring. GHHIN seeks to serve as a catalyst, knowledge broker, disseminator of good practices, and a forum for facilitating exchange and identifying needs. GHHIN will promote evidence-driven interventions, shared-learning, co-production of information, synthesis of priorities and capacity building to empower actors to take more effective and informed life-saving preparedness and planning measures. GHHIN is working toward several activities in 2018. The first Global Heat Health Synthesis report will be published to synthesize the state of science and practice to monitor, predict, and

  7. Using the GRIN-Global System to Identify Useful Plant Genetic Resources & Information

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The GRIN-Global (GG) System has been developed to provide the world's crop genebanks and plant genetic resource (PGR) users with a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use PGR information management system. Developed jointly by the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bioversity International and the Global C...

  8. A fingerprint classification algorithm based on combination of local and global information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Chongjin; Fu, Xiang; Bian, Junjie; Feng, Jufu

    2011-12-01

    Fingerprint recognition is one of the most important technologies in biometric identification and has been wildly applied in commercial and forensic areas. Fingerprint classification, as the fundamental procedure in fingerprint recognition, can sharply decrease the quantity for fingerprint matching and improve the efficiency of fingerprint recognition. Most fingerprint classification algorithms are based on the number and position of singular points. Because the singular points detecting method only considers the local information commonly, the classification algorithms are sensitive to noise. In this paper, we propose a novel fingerprint classification algorithm combining the local and global information of fingerprint. Firstly we use local information to detect singular points and measure their quality considering orientation structure and image texture in adjacent areas. Furthermore the global orientation model is adopted to measure the reliability of singular points group. Finally the local quality and global reliability is weighted to classify fingerprint. Experiments demonstrate the accuracy and effectivity of our algorithm especially for the poor quality fingerprint images.

  9. GLOBIL: WWF's Global Observation and Biodiversity Information Portal

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shapiro, A. C.; Nijsten, L.; Schmitt, S.; Tibaldeschi, P.

    2015-04-01

    Despite ever increasing availability of satellite imagery and spatial data, conservation managers, decision makers and planners are often unable to analyze data without special knowledge or software. WWF is bridging this gap by putting extensive spatial data into an easy to use online mapping environment, to allow visualization, manipulation and analysis of large data sets by any user. Consistent, reliable and repeatable ecosystem monitoring information for priority eco-regions is needed to increase transparency in WWF's global conservation work, to measure conservation impact, and to provide communications with the general public and organization members. Currently, much of this monitoring and evaluation data is isolated, incompatible, or inaccessible and not readily usable or available for those without specialized software or knowledge. Launched in 2013 by WWF Netherlands and WWF Germany, the Global Observation and Biodiversity Information Portal (GLOBIL) is WWF's new platform to unite, centralize, standardize and visualize geo-spatial data and information from more than 150 active GIS users worldwide via cloud-based ArcGIS Online. GLOBIL is increasing transparency, providing baseline data for monitoring and evaluation while communicating impacts and conservation successes to the public. GLOBIL is currently being used in the worldwide marine campaign as an advocacy tool for establishing more marine protected areas, and a monitoring interface to track the progress towards ocean protection goals. In the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation area, local partners are using the platform to monitor land cover changes, barriers to species migrations, potential human-wildlife conflict and local conservation impacts in vast wildlife corridor. In East Africa, an early warning system is providing conservation practitioners with real-time alerts of threats particularly to protected areas and World Heritage Sites by industrial extractive activities. And for

  10. International Perspectives in LIS Education: Global Education, Research, and Collaboration at the SJSU School of Information

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hirsh, Sandra; Simmons, Michelle Holschuh; Christensen, Paul; Sellar, Melanie; Stenström, Cheryl; Hagar, Christine; Bernier, Anthony; Faires, Debbie; Fisher, Jane; Alman, Susan

    2015-01-01

    The IFLA Trend Report identified five trends that will impact the information environment (IFLA, 2015), such as access to information with new technologies, online education for global learning, hyper-connected communities, and the global information environment. The faculty at San José State University (SJSU) School of Information (iSchool) is…

  11. The challenge of obtaining information necessary for multi-criteria decision analysis implementation: the case of physiotherapy services in Canada

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background As fiscal constraints dominate health policy discussions across Canada and globally, priority-setting exercises are becoming more common to guide the difficult choices that must be made. In this context, it becomes highly desirable to have accurate estimates of the value of specific health care interventions. Economic evaluation is a well-accepted method to estimate the value of health care interventions. However, economic evaluation has significant limitations, which have lead to an increase in the use of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). One key concern with MCDA is the availability of the information necessary for implementation. In the Fall 2011, the Canadian Physiotherapy Association embarked on a project aimed at providing a valuation of physiotherapy services that is both evidence-based and relevant to resource allocation decisions. The framework selected for this project was MCDA. We report on how we addressed the challenge of obtaining some of the information necessary for MCDA implementation. Methods MCDA criteria were selected and areas of physiotherapy practices were identified. The building up of the necessary information base was a three step process. First, there was a literature review for each practice area, on each criterion. The next step was to conduct interviews with experts in each of the practice areas to critique the results of the literature review and to fill in gaps where there was no or insufficient literature. Finally, the results of the individual interviews were validated by a national committee to ensure consistency across all practice areas and that a national level perspective is applied. Results Despite a lack of research evidence on many of the considerations relevant to the estimation of the value of physiotherapy services (the criteria), sufficient information was obtained to facilitate MCDA implementation at the local level. Conclusions The results of this research project serve two purposes: 1) a method to

  12. Quantitative assessment of drivers of recent global temperature variability: an information theoretic approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bhaskar, Ankush; Ramesh, Durbha Sai; Vichare, Geeta; Koganti, Triven; Gurubaran, S.

    2017-12-01

    Identification and quantification of possible drivers of recent global temperature variability remains a challenging task. This important issue is addressed adopting a non-parametric information theory technique, the Transfer Entropy and its normalized variant. It distinctly quantifies actual information exchanged along with the directional flow of information between any two variables with no bearing on their common history or inputs, unlike correlation, mutual information etc. Measurements of greenhouse gases: CO2, CH4 and N2O; volcanic aerosols; solar activity: UV radiation, total solar irradiance ( TSI) and cosmic ray flux ( CR); El Niño Southern Oscillation ( ENSO) and Global Mean Temperature Anomaly ( GMTA) made during 1984-2005 are utilized to distinguish driving and responding signals of global temperature variability. Estimates of their relative contributions reveal that CO2 ({˜ } 24 %), CH4 ({˜ } 19 %) and volcanic aerosols ({˜ }23 %) are the primary contributors to the observed variations in GMTA. While, UV ({˜ } 9 %) and ENSO ({˜ } 12 %) act as secondary drivers of variations in the GMTA, the remaining play a marginal role in the observed recent global temperature variability. Interestingly, ENSO and GMTA mutually drive each other at varied time lags. This study assists future modelling efforts in climate science.

  13. Gathering and using information on a global scale

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mathews, C. W.

    1977-01-01

    The importance of information gathered, integrated and analyzed over broad regions of the world is discussed. Means of acquiring information on critical areas are outlined, and the particular role that remote sensing can play is described in each case. The possible implementation of a global information system and some of the current difficulties in initiation of such a system on an operational basis are explored. In this way, issues will be surfaced for consideration. Topics include: the importance of innovative leadership, and some actions that the government might take, both in Congress and in the Executive Branch; the relationship of U.S. government activities to international interests and to industry; and the need to stimulate more private sector initiative and to transfer responsibilities from government to commercial interests.

  14. Progress toward an Integrated Global GHG Information System (IG3IS)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    DeCola, Philip

    2016-04-01

    Accurate and precise atmospheric measurements of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations have shown the inexorable rise of global GHG concentrations due to human socioeconomic activity. Scientific observations also show a resulting rise in global temperatures and evidence of negative impacts on society. In response to this amassing evidence, nations, states, cities and private enterprises are accelerating efforts to reduce emissions of GHGs, and the UNFCCC process recently forged the Paris Agreement. Emission reduction strategies will vary by nation, region, and economic sector (e.g., INDCs), but regardless of the strategies and mechanisms applied, the ability to implement policies and manage them effectively over time will require consistent, reliable and timely information. A number of studies [e.g., Verifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Methods to Support International Climate Agreements (2010); GEO Carbon Strategy (2010); IPCC Task Force on National GHG Inventories: Expert Meeting Report on Uncertainty and Validation of Emission Inventories (2010)] have reported on the state of carbon cycle research, observations and models and the ability of these atmospheric observations and models to independently validate and improve the accuracy of self-reported emission inventories based on fossil fuel usage and land use activities. These studies concluded that by enhancing our in situ and remote-sensing observations and atmospheric data assimilation modeling capabilities, a GHG information system could be achieved in the coming decade to serve the needs of policies and actions to reduce GHG emissions. Atmospheric measurements and models are already being used to provide emissions information on a global and continental scale through existing networks, but these efforts currently provide insufficient information at the human-dimensions where nations, states, cities, and private enterprises can take valuable, and additional action that can reduce emissions for a specific GHG

  15. Local versus Global Information Relevance in Website Use: A Case Study with the Information Literacy Portal AlfinEEES

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marco, Francisco Javier Garcia; Pinto, Maria

    2010-01-01

    Introduction: A model to explore the relations among local and global relevance-based information behaviour is proposed that is based on objective and subjective measures of the relevance of the Website contents. Method: Global interest for the Website was researched using data on visits, while local use was explored with two surveys on the…

  16. 21 CFR 830.350 - Correction of information submitted to the Global Unique Device Identification Database.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... Unique Device Identification Database. 830.350 Section 830.350 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG... Global Unique Device Identification Database § 830.350 Correction of information submitted to the Global Unique Device Identification Database. (a) If FDA becomes aware that any information submitted to the...

  17. 40 CFR 2.302 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Clean Water Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Clean Water Act. 2.302 Section 2.302 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL... governing certain information obtained under the Clean Water Act. (a) Definitions. For the purposes of this section: (1) Act means the Clean Water Act, as amended, 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq. (2)(i) Effluent data means...

  18. Spatial information management platform for Dunhuang Global Geopark

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yan-long, YU; Fa-dong, WU; Jin-fang, HAN; Yan-Jie, WANG; Hao, CHU

    2017-02-01

    As a member of UNESCO Global Geoparks, Dunhuang Global Geopark has developed a great quantity of landforms formed under special geological background and extremely droughty climate, which integrate together with specific geographic location and cultural relics on the “Silk Road Economic Belt”. The main geoheritage in Dunhuang Global Geopark is Yardang landform, which is formed by loose Quaternary sediments. According to different shapes, the Yardang landform were divided into five types, namely, ridge-shaped Yardang, wall-shaped Yardang, tower-shape Yardang, column Yardang and Yardang monadnock. In order to monitor and protect the unique morphological features of Yardang landforms, a spatial information management platform is established, using SPOT 6 remote sensing image, with object oriented approach and manual interactive interpretation. Study shows that the maximum area, perimeter, length and width of Yardang were 324843.1 m2, 3447.52 m, 1508.41m, and 285.81 m, respectively. Additionally, the aspect ratio of Yardang has a certain positive correlation, with the coefficient of correlation being 0.675. Furthermore, the relationship between length and width of Yardang is calculated using formula Y=2.546X, where Y = length, X = width.

  19. Accurately Decoding Visual Information from fMRI Data Obtained in a Realistic Virtual Environment

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-06-09

    Center for Learning and Memory , The University of Texas at Austin, 100 E 24th Street, Stop C7000, Austin, TX 78712, USA afloren@utexas.edu Received: 18...information from fMRI data obtained in a realistic virtual environment. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 9:327. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00327 Accurately decoding...visual information from fMRI data obtained in a realistic virtual environment Andrew Floren 1*, Bruce Naylor 2, Risto Miikkulainen 3 and David Ress 4

  20. 32 CFR Appendix G to Part 275 - Releasing Information Obtained From Financial Institutions

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... FINANCIAL PRIVACY ACT OF 1978 Pt. 275, App. G Appendix G to Part 275—Releasing Information Obtained From... record was obtained pursuant to the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978, 12 U.S.C. 3401 et seq., and... transferring law enforcement office, personnel security element, or intelligence organization, or designee...

  1. Systems Factorial Technology provides new insights on global-local information processing in autism spectrum disorders.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Shannon A; Blaha, Leslie M; Houpt, Joseph W; Townsend, James T

    2010-02-01

    Previous studies of global-local processing in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have indicated mixed findings, with some evidence of a local processing bias, or preference for detail-level information, and other results suggesting typical global advantage, or preference for the whole or gestalt. Findings resulting from this paradigm have been used to argue for or against a detail focused processing bias in ASDs, and thus have important theoretical implications. We applied Systems Factorial Technology, and the associated Double Factorial Paradigm (both defined in the text), to examine information processing characteristics during a divided attention global-local task in high-functioning individuals with an ASD and typically developing controls. Group data revealed global advantage for both groups, contrary to some current theories of ASDs. Information processing models applied to each participant revealed that task performance, although showing no differences at the group level, was supported by different cognitive mechanisms in ASD participants compared to controls. All control participants demonstrated inhibitory parallel processing and the majority demonstrated a minimum-time stopping rule. In contrast, ASD participants showed exhaustive parallel processing with mild facilitatory interactions between global and local information. Thus our results indicate fundamental differences in the stopping rules and channel dependencies in individuals with an ASD.

  2. 77 FR 37886 - Notice of Intent To Obtain Information Regarding Organizations Who Are Assisting African...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-06-25

    ... information regarding organizations active in this area, for the purpose of information sharing. SUMMARY: This notice announces that the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) is seeking information about organizations, both... DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Office of the Secretary Notice of Intent To Obtain Information Regarding...

  3. Exploring Local Approaches to Communicating Global Climate Change Information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stevermer, A. J.

    2002-12-01

    Expected future climate changes are often presented as a global problem, requiring a global solution. Although this statement is accurate, communicating climate change science and prospective solutions must begin at local levels, each with its own subset of complexities to be addressed. Scientific evaluation of local changes can be complicated by large variability occurring over small spatial scales; this variability hinders efforts both to analyze past local changes and to project future ones. The situation is further encumbered by challenges associated with scientific literacy in the U.S., as well as by pressing economic difficulties. For people facing real-life financial and other uncertainties, a projected ``1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius'' rise in global temperature is likely to remain only an abstract concept. Despite this lack of concreteness, recent surveys have found that most U.S. residents believe current global warming science, and an even greater number view the prospect of increased warming as at least a ``somewhat serious'' problem. People will often be able to speak of long-term climate changes in their area, whether observed changes in the amount of snow cover in winter, or in the duration of extreme heat periods in summer. This work will explore the benefits and difficulties of communicating climate change from a local, rather than global, perspective, and seek out possible strategies for making less abstract, more concrete, and most importantly, more understandable information available to the public.

  4. Recurrent Activation of Neural Circuits during Attention to Global and Local Visual Information.

    PubMed

    Iglesias-Fuster, Jorge; Piña-Novo, Daniela; Ontivero-Ortega, Marlis; Lage-Castellanos, Agustín; Valdés-Sosa, Mitchell

    2018-05-28

    The attentional selection of different hierarchical level within compound (Navon) figures has been studied with event related potentials (ERPs), by controlling the ERPs obtained during attention to the global or the local echelon. These studies, using the canonical Navon figures, have produced contradictory results, with doubts regarding the scalp distribution of the effects. Moreover, the evidence about the temporal evolution of the processing of these two levels is not clear. Here, we unveiled global and local letters at distinct times, which enabled separation of their ERP responses. We combine this approach with the temporal generalization methodology, a novel multivariate technique which facilitates exploring the temporal structure of these ERPs. Opposite lateralization patterns were obtained for the selection negativities generated when attending global and local distracters (D statistics, p < .005), with maxima in right and left occipito-temporal scalp regions, respectively (η2 = .111, p < .01; η2 = .042, p < .04). However, both discrimination negativities elicited when comparing targets and distractors at the global or the local level were lateralized to the left hemisphere (η2 = .25, p < .03 and η2 = .142, p < .05 respectively). Recurrent activation patterns were found for both global and local stimuli, with scalp topographies corresponding to early preparatory stages reemerging during the attentional selection process, thus indicating recursive attentional activation. This implies that selective attention to global and local hierarchical levels recycles similar neural correlates at different time points. These neural correlates appear to be mediated by visual extra-striate areas.

  5. 76 FR 28434 - Notice of Disclosure of Confidential Business Information Obtained Under the Comprehensive...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-05-17

    ... Information Obtained Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act to EPA Contractor Toeroek Associates Inc., and Their Subcontractor, Science Applications International Corp. AGENCY... disclose confidential business information (``CBI'') submitted to EPA Region 9 pursuant to CERCLA to EPA...

  6. Global POPIN Advisory Committee meeting considers broad range of information issues.

    PubMed

    1995-09-01

    The Global Population Information Network (POPIN) Advisory Committee met in Bangkok in June 1995. The Bali Declaration on Population and Sustainable Development adopted in 1992, and the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 recognized the importance of information in achieving information, education, and communication (IEC) goals in the population field. The information revolution would help achieve the population goals of individual countries, as more regional information networks are being created. POPIN's primary objective is to increase the awareness, knowledge, and understanding of population-related issues. There has been discussion about merging the POPLINE and POPIN thesauri and translating the Population Multilingual Thesaurus in several more languages. At this meeting a set of recommendations were adopted about POPIN's future operations concerning the continued growth of the network as a decentralized organization; the continued functioning of the Global POPIN Coordinating Unit as the central coordinating node; that the specialized agencies of the United Nations should participate actively in POPIN activities; and that the networks in each region should share information. In the production and dissemination of information various media should be used, including print, CD-ROM, e-mail, and the Internet; documents should be created in electronic format with developed guidelines; meetings should held on topics in information technology to provide training opportunities and exchange experience; presentations at conferences and symposia should be available in electronic format and made available through the Internet via the POPIN Gopher/Web Server. Follow-up activities should include the diversification of funding, the avoidance of duplication, and the achievement of cost-effectiveness.

  7. 75 FR 76479 - Notice of Proposed Information Collection for Public Comment; Procedure for Obtaining...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-12-08

    ... appropriate automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology; e.g., permitting... Information Collection for Public Comment; Procedure for Obtaining Certificates of Insurance for Capital... toll-free number) or e-mail Ms. [email protected] . Persons with hearing or speech impairments...

  8. The EUSTACE project: delivering global, daily information on surface air temperature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ghent, D.; Rayner, N. A.

    2017-12-01

    Day-to-day variations in surface air temperature affect society in many ways; however, daily surface air temperature measurements are not available everywhere. A global daily analysis cannot be achieved with measurements made in situ alone, so incorporation of satellite retrievals is needed. To achieve this, in the EUSTACE project (2015-2018, https://www.eustaceproject.eu) we have developed an understanding of the relationships between traditional (land and marine) surface air temperature measurements and retrievals of surface skin temperature from satellite measurements, i.e. Land Surface Temperature, Ice Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature and Lake Surface Water Temperature. Here we discuss the science needed to produce a fully-global daily analysis (or ensemble of analyses) of surface air temperature on the centennial scale, integrating different ground-based and satellite-borne data types. Information contained in the satellite retrievals is used to create globally-complete fields in the past, using statistical models of how surface air temperature varies in a connected way from place to place. This includes developing new "Big Data" analysis methods as the data volumes involved are considerable. We will present recent progress along this road in the EUSTACE project, i.e.: • identifying inhomogeneities in daily surface air temperature measurement series from weather stations and correcting for these over Europe; • estimating surface air temperature over all surfaces of Earth from surface skin temperature retrievals; • using new statistical techniques to provide information on higher spatial and temporal scales than currently available, making optimum use of information in data-rich eras. Information will also be given on how interested users can become involved.

  9. Strongly-motivated positive affects induce faster responses to local than global information of visual stimuli: an approach using large-size Navon letters.

    PubMed

    Noguchi, Yasuki; Tomoike, Kouta

    2016-01-12

    Recent studies argue that strongly-motivated positive emotions (e.g. desire) narrow a scope of attention. This argument is mainly based on an observation that, while humans normally respond faster to global than local information of a visual stimulus (global advantage), positive affects eliminated the global advantage by selectively speeding responses to local (but not global) information. In other words, narrowing of attentional scope was indirectly evidenced by the elimination of global advantage (the same speed of processing between global and local information). No study has directly shown that strongly-motivated positive affects induce faster responses to local than global information while excluding a bias for global information (global advantage) in a baseline (emotionally-neutral) condition. In the present study, we addressed this issue by eliminating the global advantage in a baseline (neutral) state. Induction of positive affects under this state resulted in faster responses to local than global information. Our results provided direct evidence that positive affects in high motivational intensity narrow a scope of attention.

  10. 40 CFR 2.304 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Safe Drinking Water Act. 2.304 Section 2.304 Protection of Environment... Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Safe Drinking Water Act. (a) Definitions. For the purposes of this section: (1) Act means the Safe Drinking Water Act, 42 U.S.C. 300f et seq. (2...

  11. 40 CFR 2.304 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Safe Drinking Water Act. 2.304 Section 2.304 Protection of Environment... Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Safe Drinking Water Act. (a) Definitions. For the purposes of this section: (1) Act means the Safe Drinking Water Act, 42 U.S.C. 300f et seq. (2...

  12. A Global Map of Thermal Inertia from Mars Global Surveyor Mapping-Mission Data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mellon, M. T.; Kretke, K. A.; Smith, M. D.; Pelkey, S. M.

    2002-01-01

    TES (thermal emission spectrometry) has obtained high spatial resolution surface temperature observations from which thermal inertia has been derived. Seasonal coverage of these data now provides a nearly global view of Mars, including the polar regions, at high resolution. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

  13. Globalization and advances in information and communication technologies: the impact on nursing and health.

    PubMed

    Abbott, Patricia A; Coenen, Amy

    2008-01-01

    Globalization and information and communication technology (ICT) continue to change us and the world we live in. Nursing stands at an opportunity intersection where challenging global health issues, an international workforce shortage, and massive growth of ICT combine to create a very unique space for nursing leadership and nursing intervention. Learning from prior successes in the field can assist nurse leaders in planning and advancing strategies for global health using ICT. Attention to lessons learned will assist in combating the technological apartheid that is already present in many areas of the globe and will highlight opportunities for innovative applications in health. ICT has opened new channels of communication, creating the beginnings of a global information society that will facilitate access to isolated areas where health needs are extreme and where nursing can contribute significantly to the achievement of "Health for All." The purpose of this article is to discuss the relationships between globalization, health, and ICT, and to illuminate opportunities for nursing in this flattening and increasingly interconnected world.

  14. 49 CFR 835.11 - Obtaining Board accident reports, factual accident reports, and supporting information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 7 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Obtaining Board accident reports, factual accident reports, and supporting information. 835.11 Section 835.11 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to Transportation (Continued) NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD TESTIMONY OF BOARD EMPLOYEES § 835.11 Obtaining Board accident reports, factual...

  15. 49 CFR 835.11 - Obtaining Board accident reports, factual accident reports, and supporting information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 7 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Obtaining Board accident reports, factual accident reports, and supporting information. 835.11 Section 835.11 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to Transportation (Continued) NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD TESTIMONY OF BOARD EMPLOYEES § 835.11 Obtaining Board accident reports, factual...

  16. 49 CFR 835.11 - Obtaining Board accident reports, factual accident reports, and supporting information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 7 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Obtaining Board accident reports, factual accident reports, and supporting information. 835.11 Section 835.11 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to Transportation (Continued) NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD TESTIMONY OF BOARD EMPLOYEES § 835.11 Obtaining Board accident reports, factual...

  17. 49 CFR 835.11 - Obtaining Board accident reports, factual accident reports, and supporting information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 7 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Obtaining Board accident reports, factual accident reports, and supporting information. 835.11 Section 835.11 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to Transportation (Continued) NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD TESTIMONY OF BOARD EMPLOYEES § 835.11 Obtaining Board accident reports, factual...

  18. 41 CFR 102-192.40 - Where can we obtain more information about the classes of mail?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... PROGRAMS 192-MAIL MANAGEMENT Introduction to this Part § 102-192.40 Where can we obtain more information... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Where can we obtain more information about the classes of mail? 102-192.40 Section 102-192.40 Public Contracts and Property Management...

  19. Global and Local Processing of Incidental Information and Memory Retrieval at 6 Months.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bhatt, Ramesh S.; And Others

    1994-01-01

    Five experiments examined the role of global and local cues in memory retrieval in infancy. Results showed that infants encode and remember for substantial periods of time not only the shape of figures displayed in their periphery but also the global organization of these figures. They also adapt this information when responding to new events.…

  20. An exploration of how Mexican American WIC mothers obtain information about behaviors associated with childhood obesity risk

    PubMed Central

    Cole, Suzanne M.; McKenney-Shubert, Shannon J.; Jones, Sonya J.; Peterson, Karen E.

    2016-01-01

    Objective To explore how a sample of Mexican American mothers with preschool-aged children recruited from a Midwestern WIC clinic obtain information about 4 behaviors associated with childhood obesity risk: eating, physical activity, screen time and sleep. Methods One-on-1, structured interviews, in which participants were asked how they communicated with family, learned to take care of their first infant and obtained information about the 4 targeted behaviors for their preschool-aged child. Setting An urban WIC clinic in the Midwest. Participants Forty Mexican-descent WIC mothers with children ages 3–4. Phenomenon of Interest Exposure to information about the 4 targeted behaviors among Mexican-descent mothers participating in WIC. Analysis Quantitative and qualitative data were used to characterize and compare across participants. Results Participants primarily obtained information from their child’s maternal grandmother during their first child’s infancy and from health professionals for their preschool-aged child. Participants typically obtained information through interpersonal communication, television and magazines. Participants were most interested in healthy eating information and least interested in screen time information. Some participants did not seek information. Conclusions Participants engaged in different patterns of information seeking across their child’s development and the 4 behaviors, suggesting that future research should be behaviorally specific. Findings from this study suggest several hypotheses to test in future research. PMID:27876321

  1. 76 FR 54498 - Meeting of the Department of Justice Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative Federal...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-09-01

    ... (GAC) to discuss the Global Initiative, as described at http://www.it.ojp.gov/global . DATES: [email protected]gov . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This meeting is open to the public. Due to security measures...

  2. The GRIN-Global Information Management System – Public Interface Demonstration and Input Opportunity

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The GRIN-Global (GG) Information Management System, under development for the past three years, provides the world's crop genebanks and plant genetic resource (PGR) users with a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use PGR information management system. Developed jointly by the USDA Agricultural Research Ser...

  3. 75 FR 56557 - Meeting of the Department of Justice's (DOJ's) Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-09-16

    ... Committee (GAC) to discuss the Global Initiative, as described at http://www.it.ojp.gov/global . DATES: [email protected]gov . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This meeting is open to the public. Due to security measures...

  4. The EUSTACE project: delivering global, daily information on surface air temperature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rayner, Nick

    2017-04-01

    Day-to-day variations in surface air temperature affect society in many ways; however, daily surface air temperature measurements are not available everywhere. A global daily analysis cannot be achieved with measurements made in situ alone, so incorporation of satellite retrievals is needed. To achieve this, in the EUSTACE project (2015-June 2018, https://www.eustaceproject.eu) we are developing an understanding of the relationships between traditional (land and marine) surface air temperature measurements and retrievals of surface skin temperature from satellite measurements, i.e. Land Surface Temperature, Ice Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature and Lake Surface Water Temperature. Here we discuss the science needed to produce a fully-global daily analysis (or ensemble of analyses) of surface air temperature on the centennial scale, integrating different ground-based and satellite-borne data types. Information contained in the satellite retrievals is used to create globally-complete fields in the past, using statistical models of how surface air temperature varies in a connected way from place to place. As the data volumes involved are considerable, such work needs to include development of new "Big Data" analysis methods. We will present recent progress along this road in the EUSTACE project: 1. providing new, consistent, multi-component estimates of uncertainty in surface skin temperature retrievals from satellites; 2. identifying inhomogeneities in daily surface air temperature measurement series from weather stations and correcting for these over Europe; 3. estimating surface air temperature over all surfaces of Earth from surface skin temperature retrievals; 4. using new statistical techniques to provide information on higher spatial and temporal scales than currently available, making optimum use of information in data-rich eras. Information will also be given on how interested users can become involved.

  5. The EUSTACE project: delivering global, daily information on surface air temperature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ghent, D.; Rayner, N. A.

    2016-12-01

    Day-to-day variations in surface air temperature affect society in many ways; however, daily surface air temperature measurements are not available everywhere. A global daily analysis cannot be achieved with measurements made in situ alone, so incorporation of satellite retrievals is needed. To achieve this, in the EUSTACE project (2015-June 2018, https://www.eustaceproject.eu) we are developing an understanding of the relationships between traditional (land and marine) surface air temperature measurements and retrievals of surface skin temperature from satellite measurements, i.e. Land Surface Temperature, Ice Surface Temperature, Sea Surface Temperature and Lake Surface Water Temperature. Here we discuss the science needed to produce a fully-global daily analysis (or ensemble of analyses) of surface air temperature on the centennial scale, integrating different ground-based and satellite-borne data types. Information contained in the satellite retrievals is used to create globally-complete fields in the past, using statistical models of how surface air temperature varies in a connected way from place to place. As the data volumes involved are considerable, such work needs to include development of new "Big Data" analysis methods. We will present recent progress along this road in the EUSTACE project, i.e.: • providing new, consistent, multi-component estimates of uncertainty in surface skin temperature retrievals from satellites; • identifying inhomogeneities in daily surface air temperature measurement series from weather stations and correcting for these over Europe; • estimating surface air temperature over all surfaces of Earth from surface skin temperature retrievals; • using new statistical techniques to provide information on higher spatial and temporal scales than currently available, making optimum use of information in data-rich eras. Information will also be given on how interested users can become involved.

  6. Global Drought Services: Collaborations Toward an Information System for Early Warning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hayes, M. J.; Pulwarty, R. S.; Svoboda, M.

    2014-12-01

    Drought is a hazard that lends itself well to diligent, sustained monitoring and early warning. However, unlike most hazards, the fact that droughts typically evolve slowly, can last for months or years and cover vast areas spanning multiple political boundaries/jurisdictions and economic sectors can make it a daunting task to monitor, develop plans for, and identify appropriate, proactive mitigation strategies. The National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) have been working together to reduce societal vulnerability to drought by helping decision makers at all levels to: 1) implement drought early warning/forecasting and decision support systems; 2) support and advocate for better collection of, and understanding of drought impacts; and 3) increase long-term resilience to drought through proactive planning. The NDMC and NIDIS risk management approach has been the basis from which many partners around the world are developing a collaboration and coordination nexus with an ultimate goal of building comprehensive global drought early warning information systems (GDEWIS). The core emphasis of this model is on developing and applying useful and usable information that can be integrated and transferred freely to other regions around the globe. The High-Level Ministerial Declaration on Drought, the Integrated Drought Management Programme (IDMP) co-led by the WMO and the Global Water Partnership (GWP), and the Global Framework for Climate Services are drawing extensively from the integrated NDMC-NIDIS risk management framework. This presentation will describe, in detail, the various drought resources, tools, services, and collaborations already being provided and undertaken at the national and regional scales by the NDMC, NIDIS, and their partners. The presentation will be forward-looking, identifying improvements in existing and proposed mechanisms to help strengthen national and international drought early

  7. Using Global Climate Data to Inform Long-Term Water Planning Decisions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Groves, D. G.; Lempert, R.

    2008-12-01

    Water managers throughout the world are working to consider climate change in their long-term water planning processes. The best available information regarding plausible future hydrologic conditions are largely derived from global circulation models and from paleoclimate data. To date there lacks a single approach for (1) utilizing these data in water management planning tools for analysis and (2) evaluating the myriad of possible adaptation options. This talk will describe several approaches being used at RAND to incorporate global projections of climate change into local, regional, and state-wide long-term water planning. It will draw on current work with the California Department of Water Resources and other local Western water agencies, and a recently completed project with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency. Work to date suggests that climate information can be assimilated into local water planning tools to help identify robust climate adaptation water management strategies.

  8. Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer - bringing risk information to practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ward, Philip

    2017-04-01

    The economic losses associated with flooding are huge and rising. As a result, there is increasing attention for strategic flood risk assessments at the global scale. In response, the last few years have seen a large growth in the number of global flood models. At the same time, users and practitioners require flood risk information in a format that is easy to use, understandable, transparent, and actionable. In response, we have developed the Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer (wri.org/floods). The Analyzer is a free, online, easy to use, tool for assessing global river flood risk at the scale of countries, states, and river basins, using data generated by the state of the art GLOFRIS global flood risk model. The Analyzer allows users to assess flood risk on-the-fly in terms of expected annual urban damage, and expected annual population and GDP affected by floods. Analyses can be carried out for current conditions and under future scenarios of climate change and socioeconomic development. We will demonstrate the tool, and discuss several of its applications in practice. In the past 15 months, the tool has been visited and used by more than 12,000 unique users from almost every country, including many users from the World Bank, Pacific Disaster Center, Red Cross Climate Centre, as well as many journalists from major international news outlets. Use cases will be presented from these user communities. We will also present ongoing research to improve the user functionality of the tool in the coming year. This includes the inclusion of coastal flood risk, assessing the costs and benefits of adaptation, and assessing the impacts of land subsidence and urban extension on risk.

  9. Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer - bringing risk information to practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ward, P.; Bierkens, M. F.; Bouwman, A.; Diaz Loaiza, A.; Eilander, D.; Englhardt, J.; Erkens, G.; Hofste, R.; Iceland, C.; Willem, L.; Luo, T.; Muis, S.; Scussolini, P.; Sutanudjaja, E.; Van Beek, L. P.; Van Bemmel, B.; Van Huijstee, J.; Van Wesenbeeck, B.; Vatvani, D.; Verlaan, M.; Winsemius, H.

    2016-12-01

    The economic losses associated with flooding are huge and rising. As a result, there is increasing attention for strategic flood risk assessments at the global scale. In response, the last few years have seen a large growth in the number of global flood models. At the same time, users and practitioners require flood risk information in a format that is easy to use, understandable, transparent, and actionable. In response, we have developed the Aqueduct Global Flood Analyzer (wri.org/floods). The Analyzer is a free, online, easy to use, tool for assessing global river flood risk at the scale of countries, states, and river basins, using data generated by the state of the art GLOFRIS global flood risk model. The Analyzer allows users to assess flood risk on-the-fly in terms of expected annual urban damage, and expected annual population and GDP affected by floods. Analyses can be carried out for current conditions and under future scenarios of climate change and socioeconomic development. We will demonstrate the tool, and discuss several of its applications in practice. In the past 15 months, the tool has been visited and used by more than 12,000 unique users from almost every country, including many users from the World Bank, Pacific Disaster Center, Red Cross Climate Centre, as well as many journalists from major international news outlets. Use cases will be presented from these user communities. We will also present ongoing research to improve the user functionality of the tool in the coming year. This includes the inclusion of coastal flood risk, assessing the costs and benefits of adaptation, and assessing the impacts of land subsidence and urban extension on risk.

  10. An Exploration of How Mexican American WIC Mothers Obtain Information About Behaviors Associated With Childhood Obesity Risk.

    PubMed

    Davis, Rachel E; Cole, Suzanne M; McKenney-Shubert, Shannon J; Jones, Sonya J; Peterson, Karen E

    2017-03-01

    To explore how a sample of Mexican American mothers with preschool-aged children recruited from a Midwestern Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinic obtained information about 4 behaviors associated with childhood obesity risk: eating, physical activity, screen time, and sleep. One-on-one structured interviews in which participants were asked how they communicated with family, learned to take care of their first infant, and obtained information about the 4 targeted behaviors for their preschool-aged child. An urban WIC clinic in the Midwest. Forty Mexican-descent mothers enrolled in WIC with children aged 3-4 years. Exposure to information about the 4 targeted behaviors among Mexican-descent mothers participating in WIC. Quantitative and qualitative data were used to characterize and compare across participants. Participants primarily obtained information from their child's maternal grandmother during their first child's infancy and from health professionals for their preschool-aged child. Participants typically obtained information through interpersonal communication, television, and magazines. Participants were most interested in healthy eating information and least interested in screen time information. Some participants did not seek information. Participants engaged in different patterns of information seeking across their child's development and the 4 behaviors, which suggests that future research should be behaviorally specific. Findings from this study suggest several hypotheses to test in future research. Copyright © 2016 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Collecting Information for Rating Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF): Sources of Information and Methods for Information Collection.

    PubMed

    I H, Monrad Aas

    2014-11-01

    Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) is an assessment instrument that is known worldwide. It is widely used for rating the severity of illness. Results from evaluations in psychiatry should characterize the patients. Rating of GAF is based on collected information. The aim of the study is to identify the factors involved in collecting information that is relevant for rating GAF, and gaps in knowledge where it is likely that further development would play a role for improved scoring. A literature search was conducted with a combination of thorough hand search and search in the bibliographic databases PubMed, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, and Campbell Collaboration Library of Systematic Reviews. Collection of information for rating GAF depends on two fundamental factors: the sources of information and the methods for information collection. Sources of information are patients, informants, health personnel, medical records, letters of referral and police records about violence and substance abuse. Methods for information collection include the many different types of interview - unstructured, semi-structured, structured, interviews for Axis I and II disorders, semistructured interviews for rating GAF, and interviews of informants - as well as instruments for rating symptoms and functioning, and observation. The different sources of information, and methods for collection, frequently result in inconsistencies in the information collected. The variation in collected information, and lack of a generally accepted algorithm for combining collected information, is likely to be important for rated GAF values, but there is a fundamental lack of knowledge about the degree of importance. Research to improve GAF has not reached a high level. Rated GAF values are likely to be influenced by both the sources of information used and the methods employed for information collection, but the lack of research-based information about these influences is fundamental. Further development of

  12. 24 CFR 5.905 - What special authority is there to obtain access to sex offender registration information?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    ... obtain access to sex offender registration information? 5.905 Section 5.905 Housing and Urban Development... access to sex offender registration information? (a) PHA obligation to obtain sex offender registration... applying for admission to any federally assisted housing program is subject to a lifetime sex offender...

  13. 24 CFR 5.905 - What special authority is there to obtain access to sex offender registration information?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... obtain access to sex offender registration information? 5.905 Section 5.905 Housing and Urban Development... access to sex offender registration information? (a) PHA obligation to obtain sex offender registration... applying for admission to any federally assisted housing program is subject to a lifetime sex offender...

  14. 24 CFR 5.905 - What special authority is there to obtain access to sex offender registration information?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... obtain access to sex offender registration information? 5.905 Section 5.905 Housing and Urban Development... access to sex offender registration information? (a) PHA obligation to obtain sex offender registration... applying for admission to any federally assisted housing program is subject to a lifetime sex offender...

  15. 24 CFR 5.905 - What special authority is there to obtain access to sex offender registration information?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... obtain access to sex offender registration information? 5.905 Section 5.905 Housing and Urban Development... access to sex offender registration information? (a) PHA obligation to obtain sex offender registration... applying for admission to any federally assisted housing program is subject to a lifetime sex offender...

  16. 24 CFR 5.905 - What special authority is there to obtain access to sex offender registration information?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... obtain access to sex offender registration information? 5.905 Section 5.905 Housing and Urban Development... access to sex offender registration information? (a) PHA obligation to obtain sex offender registration... applying for admission to any federally assisted housing program is subject to a lifetime sex offender...

  17. Vision for an Open, Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (GHGIS)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duren, R. M.; Butler, J. H.; Rotman, D.; Ciais, P.; Greenhouse Gas Information System Team

    2010-12-01

    Over the next few years, an increasing number of entities ranging from international, national, and regional governments, to businesses and private land-owners, are likely to become more involved in efforts to limit atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. In such a world, geospatially resolved information about the location, amount, and rate of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will be needed, as well as the stocks and flows of all forms of carbon through the earth system. The ability to implement policies that limit GHG concentrations would be enhanced by a global, open, and transparent greenhouse gas information system (GHGIS). An operational and scientifically robust GHGIS would combine ground-based and space-based observations, carbon-cycle modeling, GHG inventories, synthesis analysis, and an extensive data integration and distribution system, to provide information about anthropogenic and natural sources, sinks, and fluxes of greenhouse gases at temporal and spatial scales relevant to decision making. The GHGIS effort was initiated in 2008 as a grassroots inter-agency collaboration intended to identify the needs for such a system, assess the capabilities of current assets, and suggest priorities for future research and development. We will present a vision for an open, global GHGIS including latest analysis of system requirements, critical gaps, and relationship to related efforts at various agencies, the Group on Earth Observations, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

  18. Global Information and Mobility Support Coordination Among Humans

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Antonioni, Alberto; Sanchez, Angel; Tomassini, Marco

    2014-09-01

    Coordination among different options is key for a functioning and efficient society. However, often coordination failures arise, resulting in serious problems both at the individual and the societal level. An additional factor intervening in the coordination process is individual mobility, which takes place at all scales in our world, and whose effect on coordination is not well known. In this experimental work we study the behavior of people who play a pure coordination game in a spatial environment in which they can move around and when changing convention is costly. We find that each convention forms homogeneous clusters and is adopted by approximately half of the individuals. When we provide them with global information, i.e., the number of subjects currently adopting one of the conventions, global consensus is reached in most, but not all, cases. Our results allow us to extract the heuristics used by the participants and to build a numerical simulation model that agrees very well with the experiments. Our findings have important implications for policymakers intending to promote specific, desired behaviors in a mobile population.

  19. Obtaining Global Picture From Single Point Observations by Combining Data Assimilation and Machine Learning Tools

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shprits, Y.; Zhelavskaya, I. S.; Kellerman, A. C.; Spasojevic, M.; Kondrashov, D. A.; Ghil, M.; Aseev, N.; Castillo Tibocha, A. M.; Cervantes Villa, J. S.; Kletzing, C.; Kurth, W. S.

    2017-12-01

    Increasing volume of satellite measurements requires deployment of new tools that can utilize such vast amount of data. Satellite measurements are usually limited to a single location in space, which complicates the data analysis geared towards reproducing the global state of the space environment. In this study we show how measurements can be combined by means of data assimilation and how machine learning can help analyze large amounts of data and can help develop global models that are trained on single point measurement. Data Assimilation: Manual analysis of the satellite measurements is a challenging task, while automated analysis is complicated by the fact that measurements are given at various locations in space, have different instrumental errors, and often vary by orders of magnitude. We show results of the long term reanalysis of radiation belt measurements along with fully operational real-time predictions using data assimilative VERB code. Machine Learning: We present application of the machine learning tools for the analysis of NASA Van Allen Probes upper-hybrid frequency measurements. Using the obtained data set we train a new global predictive neural network. The results for the Van Allen Probes based neural network are compared with historical IMAGE satellite observations. We also show examples of predictions of geomagnetic indices using neural networks. Combination of machine learning and data assimilation: We discuss how data assimilation tools and machine learning tools can be combine so that physics-based insight into the dynamics of the particular system can be combined with empirical knowledge of it's non-linear behavior.

  20. 40 CFR 2.303 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Noise Control Act of 1972.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Noise Control Act of 1972. 2.303 Section 2.303 Protection of Environment... Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Noise Control Act of 1972. (a) Definitions. For the purposes of this section: (1) Act means the Noise Control Act of 1972, 42 U.S.C. 4901 et seq...

  1. 40 CFR 2.303 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Noise Control Act of 1972.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Noise Control Act of 1972. 2.303 Section 2.303 Protection of Environment... Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Noise Control Act of 1972. (a) Definitions. For the purposes of this section: (1) Act means the Noise Control Act of 1972, 42 U.S.C. 4901 et seq...

  2. Supporting global health goals with information and communications technology

    PubMed Central

    Boman, Magnus; Kruse, Erik

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to critically assess the possible roles of information and communications technology (ICT) in supporting global health goals. This is done by considering privilege and connectibility. In short, ICT can contribute by providing health information via four different kinds of access, each with its own history and prospective future. All four are analyzed here, in two perspectives: business-as-usual and disruptive. Health data analytics is difficult since the digital representation of past, current, and future health information is lacking. The flow of analytics that may prove beneficial to the individual and not just meet abstract population-level goals or ambitions is analyzed in detail. Sensemaking is also needed, to meet the minimum requirement of making prospective future services understandable to policymakers. Drivers as well as barriers for areas in which policy decisions have the potential to drive positive developments for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals are identified. PMID:28838300

  3. Supporting global health goals with information and communications technology.

    PubMed

    Boman, Magnus; Kruse, Erik

    2017-06-01

    The objective of this study is to critically assess the possible roles of information and communications technology (ICT) in supporting global health goals. This is done by considering privilege and connectibility. In short, ICT can contribute by providing health information via four different kinds of access, each with its own history and prospective future. All four are analyzed here, in two perspectives: business-as-usual and disruptive. Health data analytics is difficult since the digital representation of past, current, and future health information is lacking. The flow of analytics that may prove beneficial to the individual and not just meet abstract population-level goals or ambitions is analyzed in detail. Sensemaking is also needed, to meet the minimum requirement of making prospective future services understandable to policymakers. Drivers as well as barriers for areas in which policy decisions have the potential to drive positive developments for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals are identified.

  4. Information systems on human resources for health: a global review

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Background Although attainment of the health-related Millennium Development Goals relies on countries having adequate numbers of human resources for health (HRH) and their appropriate distribution, global understanding of the systems used to generate information for monitoring HRH stock and flows, known as human resources information systems (HRIS), is minimal. While HRIS are increasingly recognized as integral to health system performance assessment, baseline information regarding their scope and capability around the world has been limited. We conducted a review of the available literature on HRIS implementation processes in order to draw this baseline. Methods Our systematic search initially retrieved 11 923 articles in four languages published in peer-reviewed and grey literature. Following the selection of those articles which detailed HRIS implementation processes, reviews of their contents were conducted using two-person teams, each assigned to a national system. A data abstraction tool was developed and used to facilitate objective assessment. Results Ninety-five articles with relevant HRIS information were reviewed, mostly from the grey literature, which comprised 84 % of all documents. The articles represented 63 national HRIS and two regionally integrated systems. Whereas a high percentage of countries reported the capability to generate workforce supply and deployment data, few systems were documented as being used for HRH planning and decision-making. Of the systems examined, only 23 % explicitly stated they collect data on workforce attrition. The majority of countries experiencing crisis levels of HRH shortages (56 %) did not report data on health worker qualifications or professional credentialing as part of their HRIS. Conclusion Although HRIS are critical for evidence-based human resource policy and practice, there is a dearth of information about these systems, including their current capabilities. The absence of standardized HRIS profiles

  5. Space Applications and Global Information Infrastructure: a Global Approach against Epidemics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bastos, C. R.

    2002-01-01

    Brazilian space expenditures correspond to a low-middle rank among the space-faring nations. In this regard, international partnerships have opened doors for the country to take part in a wider range of projects than it would be possible if carried out on its own. Within the above framework, this paper will address a concept in which countries join efforts in pursuit of common objectives and needs in the field of health, countries whose similarities tend to make them face the same types of health problems. Exactly for this reason, such countries can get together and share the costs, risks and ultimately the benefits of their joint efforts. Infectious diseases are mankind's leading causes of death. And their agents travel around the world by the action of their vectors: insects, birds, winds, infected individuals, and others. The ways how Global Information Infrastructure and Space applications can be very helpful in the detection, identification, tracking and fighting migratory diseases will then be discussed. A concept for an international cooperative initiative is presented, addressing its composition, its implementation, the international coordination requirements, the financial and funding issues related to its implementation and sustainability, and the roles to be played by such an organization. The funding issue deserves a closer attention, since many good ideas are killed by financial problems in their early implementation stages. Finally, a conclusion drives the audience's attention towards the potential advantages of space-based assets in covering large portions of the Earth, and consequently being suitable for global initiatives for the benefit of mankind.

  6. 42 CFR 478.24 - Opportunity for a party to obtain and submit information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 4 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Opportunity for a party to obtain and submit information. 478.24 Section 478.24 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS RECONSIDERATIONS AND APPEALS...

  7. 42 CFR 478.24 - Opportunity for a party to obtain and submit information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Opportunity for a party to obtain and submit information. 478.24 Section 478.24 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS RECONSIDERATIONS AND APPEALS...

  8. 42 CFR 478.24 - Opportunity for a party to obtain and submit information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Opportunity for a party to obtain and submit information. 478.24 Section 478.24 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS RECONSIDERATIONS AND APPEALS...

  9. 42 CFR 478.24 - Opportunity for a party to obtain and submit information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Opportunity for a party to obtain and submit information. 478.24 Section 478.24 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS RECONSIDERATIONS AND APPEALS...

  10. 40 CFR 2.302 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Clean Water Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... provide the information was issued under section 309(a)(3) of the Act, 33 U.S.C. 1319(a)(3), whether a civil action was brought under section 309(b) of the Act, 33 U.S.C. 1319(b), and whether the information... specifically does not apply to information obtained under section 310(d) or 312(g)(3) of the Act, 33 U.S.C...

  11. 40 CFR 2.302 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Clean Water Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... provide the information was issued under section 309(a)(3) of the Act, 33 U.S.C. 1319(a)(3), whether a civil action was brought under section 309(b) of the Act, 33 U.S.C. 1319(b), and whether the information... specifically does not apply to information obtained under section 310(d) or 312(g)(3) of the Act, 33 U.S.C...

  12. 40 CFR 2.302 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Clean Water Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... provide the information was issued under section 309(a)(3) of the Act, 33 U.S.C. 1319(a)(3), whether a civil action was brought under section 309(b) of the Act, 33 U.S.C. 1319(b), and whether the information... specifically does not apply to information obtained under section 310(d) or 312(g)(3) of the Act, 33 U.S.C...

  13. "Negotiorum Gestio" in Family Medicine, Informed Consent Obtainment, and Disciplinary Responsibility.

    PubMed

    Birkeland, Søren

    2016-01-01

    Introduction. Negotiorum gestio (NG) denotes an action where a person well intendedly acts on behalf of another without obtaining the latter's prior consent. In broad terms, NG-like actions have played a considerable role in health care provision. In some settings, health care delivery with only little or presumed patients' consent has been the rule rather than the exception. However, bioethical principles regarding patient autonomy and obtainment of the patient's informed consent (IC) before intervention are now increasingly materialized in the law of many countries. Aim. To study legal consequences of NG in family medicine and IC handling options. Methods. Case law examination. Results. A disciplinary board case is described concerning a family doctor conducting unlawful NG by not coming up to legal IC requirements. Discussion and Conclusion. The practical and legal implications of IC and possible role of novel Shared Decision-Making approaches in coming up to regulation and bioethical demands are discussed. It is concluded that a doctor may run an unnecessary legal risk when conducting NG in decision-competent patients and furthermore it is suggested that novel Shared Decision-Making approaches could help in obtaining a rightful and practicable IC.

  14. Integrating Genome-based Informatics to Modernize Global Disease Monitoring, Information Sharing, and Response

    PubMed Central

    Brown, Eric W.; Detter, Chris; Gerner-Smidt, Peter; Gilmour, Matthew W.; Harmsen, Dag; Hendriksen, Rene S.; Hewson, Roger; Heymann, David L.; Johansson, Karin; Ijaz, Kashef; Keim, Paul S.; Koopmans, Marion; Kroneman, Annelies; Wong, Danilo Lo Fo; Lund, Ole; Palm, Daniel; Sawanpanyalert, Pathom; Sobel, Jeremy; Schlundt, Jørgen

    2012-01-01

    The rapid advancement of genome technologies holds great promise for improving the quality and speed of clinical and public health laboratory investigations and for decreasing their cost. The latest generation of genome DNA sequencers can provide highly detailed and robust information on disease-causing microbes, and in the near future these technologies will be suitable for routine use in national, regional, and global public health laboratories. With additional improvements in instrumentation, these next- or third-generation sequencers are likely to replace conventional culture-based and molecular typing methods to provide point-of-care clinical diagnosis and other essential information for quicker and better treatment of patients. Provided there is free-sharing of information by all clinical and public health laboratories, these genomic tools could spawn a global system of linked databases of pathogen genomes that would ensure more efficient detection, prevention, and control of endemic, emerging, and other infectious disease outbreaks worldwide. PMID:23092707

  15. Cases on Successful E-Learning Practices in the Developed and Developing World: Methods for the Global Information Economy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Olaniran, Bolanle A., Ed.

    2010-01-01

    E-learning has become a significant aspect of training and education in the worldwide information economy as an attempt to create and facilitate a competent global work force. "Cases on Successful E-Learning Practices in the Developed and Developing World: Methods for the Global Information Economy" provides eclectic accounts of case…

  16. Satellite missions, global environment, and the concept of a global satellite observation information network. The role of the committee on Earth observation satellites (CEOS)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, D. Brent; Williams, David F.; Fujita, Akihiro

    The paper traces the development of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) since its November 1990 Plenary: its restructuring to include major intergovernmental user and international scientific organizational affiliates; its focus on data sharing issues and completion of a CEOS resolution guaranteeing global change researchers access to satellite data at the cost of filling a user request; unfolding of a CEOS-associated initiative of the UK Prime Minister reporting to UNCED delegations on the relevance of satellite missions to the study of the global environment; development of a "Dossier" providing detailed information on all CEOS agency satellite missions, including sensor specifications, ground systems, standard data products, and other information relevant to users; creation of a permanent CEOS Secretariat; and efforts currently underway to assess the feasibility of a global satellite observation information network. Of particular relevance to developing countries, the paper will discuss CEOS efforts to assure broad user access and to foster acceptance of applications in such important areas as disaster monitoring and mitigation, land cover change, weather forecasting, and long-term climate modeling.

  17. The perspectives of researchers on obtaining informed consent in developing countries.

    PubMed

    Newton, Sam K; Appiah-Poku, John

    2007-04-01

    The doctrine of informed consent (IC) exists to protect individuals from exploitation or harm. This study into IC was carried out to investigate how different researchers perceived the process whereby researchers obtained consent. It also examined researchers' perspectives on what constituted IC, and how different settings influenced the process. The study recorded in-depth interviews with 12 lecturers and five doctoral students, who had carried out research in developing countries, at a leading school of public health in the United Kingdom. A purposive, snowballing approach was used to identify interviewees. Although the concept and application of the doctrine of IC should have been the same, irrespective of where the research was carried out, the process of obtaining it had to be different. The setting had to be taken into consideration and the autonomy of the subject had to be respected at all times. In areas of high illiteracy, and where understanding of the subject was likely to be a problem, there was an added responsibility placed on the researcher to devise innovative ways of carrying out the study, taking into consideration the peculiarities of the environment. The ethical issues for IC were the same, irrespective of where the research was conducted. However, because the backgrounds, setting, and knowledge of populations differed, there was the need to be similarly sensitive in obtaining consent. The problems of obtaining genuine IC were not limited to developing countries.

  18. 40 CFR 2.305 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended. 2.305 Section 2.305 Protection of... § 2.305 Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended. (a) Definitions. For purposes of this section: (1) Act means the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as...

  19. 40 CFR 2.305 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended. 2.305 Section 2.305 Protection of... § 2.305 Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended. (a) Definitions. For purposes of this section: (1) Act means the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as...

  20. 40 CFR 2.308 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. 2.308 Section 2.308 Protection of... § 2.308 Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic... Cosmetic Act, as amended, 21 U.S.C. 301 et seq. (2) Petition means a petition for the issuance of a...

  1. 40 CFR 2.308 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. 2.308 Section 2.308 Protection of... § 2.308 Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic... Cosmetic Act, as amended, 21 U.S.C. 301 et seq. (2) Petition means a petition for the issuance of a...

  2. 40 CFR 2.308 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. 2.308 Section 2.308 Protection of... § 2.308 Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic... Cosmetic Act, as amended, 21 U.S.C. 301 et seq. (2) Petition means a petition for the issuance of a...

  3. 40 CFR 2.308 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. 2.308 Section 2.308 Protection of... § 2.308 Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic... Cosmetic Act, as amended, 21 U.S.C. 301 et seq. (2) Petition means a petition for the issuance of a...

  4. 40 CFR 2.308 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. 2.308 Section 2.308 Protection of... § 2.308 Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic... Cosmetic Act, as amended, 21 U.S.C. 301 et seq. (2) Petition means a petition for the issuance of a...

  5. Can International Large-Scale Assessments Inform a Global Learning Goal? Insights from the Learning Metrics Task Force

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Winthrop, Rebecca; Simons, Kate Anderson

    2013-01-01

    In recent years, the global community has developed a range of initiatives to inform the post-2015 global development agenda. In the education community, International Large-Scale Assessments (ILSAs) have an important role to play in advancing a global shift in focus to access plus learning. However, there are a number of other assessment tools…

  6. MaizeGDB: Global support for maize research through open access information [abstract

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    MaizeGDB is the open-access global repository for maize genetic and genomic information – from single genes that determine nutritional quality to whole genome-scale data for complex traits including yield and drought tolerance. The data and tools at MaizeGDB enable researchers from Ethiopia to Ghan...

  7. GLOBAL EARTH OBSERVATION SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS (GEOSS) REMOTE SENSING INFORMATION GATEWAY DEMONSTRATION

    EPA Science Inventory

    How do forest fires in a state or country impact the health of residents, living thousands of miles away? How do we better track the effects of heavy urban rain runoff into nearby lakes to provide unprecedented access to and use of global Earth observation information to track, ...

  8. Enhancing End-to-End Performance of Information Services Over Ka-Band Global Satellite Networks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bhasin, Kul B.; Glover, Daniel R.; Ivancic, William D.; vonDeak, Thomas C.

    1997-01-01

    The Internet has been growing at a rapid rate as the key medium to provide information services such as e-mail, WWW and multimedia etc., however its global reach is limited. Ka-band communication satellite networks are being developed to increase the accessibility of information services via the Internet at global scale. There is need to assess satellite networks in their ability to provide these services and interconnect seamlessly with existing and proposed terrestrial telecommunication networks. In this paper the significant issues and requirements in providing end-to-end high performance for the delivery of information services over satellite networks based on various layers in the OSI reference model are identified. Key experiments have been performed to evaluate the performance of digital video and Internet over satellite-like testbeds. The results of the early developments in ATM and TCP protocols over satellite networks are summarized.

  9. Allegations of Failure to Obtain Informed Consent in Spinal Surgery Medical Malpractice Claims

    PubMed Central

    Grauberger, Jennifer; Kerezoudis, Panagiotis; Choudhry, Asad J.; Alvi, Mohammed Ali; Nassr, Ahmad; Currier, Bradford

    2017-01-01

    Importance Predictive factors associated with increased risk of medical malpractice litigation have been identified, including severity of injury, physician sex, and error in diagnosis. However, there is a paucity of literature investigating informed consent in spinal surgery malpractice. Objective To investigate the failure to obtain informed consent as an allegation in medical malpractice claims for patients undergoing a spinal procedure. Design, Setting, and Participants In this retrospective cohort study, a national medicolegal database was searched for malpractice claim cases related to spinal surgery for all years available (ie, January 1, 1980, through December 31, 2015). Main Outcomes and Measures Failure to obtain informed consent and associated medical malpractice case verdict. Results A total of 233 patients (117 [50.4%] male and 116 [49.8%] female; 80 with no informed consent allegation and 153 who cited lack of informed consent) who underwent spinal surgery and filed a malpractice claim were studied (mean [SD] age, 47.1 [13.1] years in the total group, 45.8 [12.9] years in the control group, and 47.9 [13.3] years in the informed consent group). Median interval between year of surgery and year of verdict was 5.4 years (interquartile range, 4-7 years). The most common informed consent allegations were failure to explain risks and adverse effects of surgery (52 [30.4%]) and failure to explain alternative treatment options (17 [9.9%]). In bivariate analysis, patients in the control group were more likely to require additional surgery (45 [56.3%] vs 53 [34.6%], P = .002) and have more permanent injuries compared with the informed consent group (46 [57.5%] vs 63 [42.0%], P = .03). On multivariable regression analysis, permanent injuries were more often associated with indemnity payment after a plaintiff verdict (odds ratio [OR], 3.12; 95% CI, 1.46-6.65; P = .003) or a settlement (OR, 6.26; 95% CI, 1.06-36.70; P = .04). Informed consent

  10. Allegations of Failure to Obtain Informed Consent in Spinal Surgery Medical Malpractice Claims.

    PubMed

    Grauberger, Jennifer; Kerezoudis, Panagiotis; Choudhry, Asad J; Alvi, Mohammed Ali; Nassr, Ahmad; Currier, Bradford; Bydon, Mohamad

    2017-06-21

    Predictive factors associated with increased risk of medical malpractice litigation have been identified, including severity of injury, physician sex, and error in diagnosis. However, there is a paucity of literature investigating informed consent in spinal surgery malpractice. To investigate the failure to obtain informed consent as an allegation in medical malpractice claims for patients undergoing a spinal procedure. In this retrospective cohort study, a national medicolegal database was searched for malpractice claim cases related to spinal surgery for all years available (ie, January 1, 1980, through December 31, 2015). Failure to obtain informed consent and associated medical malpractice case verdict. A total of 233 patients (117 [50.4%] male and 116 [49.8%] female; 80 with no informed consent allegation and 153 who cited lack of informed consent) who underwent spinal surgery and filed a malpractice claim were studied (mean [SD] age, 47.1 [13.1] years in the total group, 45.8 [12.9] years in the control group, and 47.9 [13.3] years in the informed consent group). Median interval between year of surgery and year of verdict was 5.4 years (interquartile range, 4-7 years). The most common informed consent allegations were failure to explain risks and adverse effects of surgery (52 [30.4%]) and failure to explain alternative treatment options (17 [9.9%]). In bivariate analysis, patients in the control group were more likely to require additional surgery (45 [56.3%] vs 53 [34.6%], P = .002) and have more permanent injuries compared with the informed consent group (46 [57.5%] vs 63 [42.0%], P = .03). On multivariable regression analysis, permanent injuries were more often associated with indemnity payment after a plaintiff verdict (odds ratio [OR], 3.12; 95% CI, 1.46-6.65; P = .003) or a settlement (OR, 6.26; 95% CI, 1.06-36.70; P = .04). Informed consent allegations were significantly associated with less severe (temporary or emotional) injury (OR

  11. Analysis of the Quality of Information Obtained About Uterine Artery Embolization From the Internet

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

    Tavare, Aniket N.; Alsafi, Ali, E-mail: ali.alsafi03@imperial.ac.uk; Hamady, Mohamad S.

    Purpose: The Internet is widely used by patients to source health care-related information. We sought to analyse the quality of information available on the Internet about uterine artery embolization (UAE). Materials and Methods: We searched three major search engines for the phrase 'uterine artery embolization' and compiled the top 50 results from each engine. After excluding repeated sites, scientific articles, and links to documents, the remaining 50 sites were assessed using the LIDA instrument, which scores sites across the domains of accessibility, usability, and reliability. The Fleisch reading ease score (FRES) was calculated for each of the sites. Finally, wemore » checked the country of origin and the presence of certification by the Health On the Net Foundation (HONcode) as well as their effect on LIDA and FRES scores.ResultsThe following mean scores were obtained: accessibility 48/60 (80%), usability 42/54 (77%), reliability 20/51 (39%), total LIDA 110/165 (67%), and FRES 42/100 (42%). Nine sites had HONcode certification, and this was associated with significantly greater (p < 0.05) reliability and total LIDA and FRES scores. When comparing sites between United Kingdom and United States, there was marked variation in the quality of results obtained when searching for information on UAE (p < 0.05). Conclusion: In general, sites were well designed and easy to use. However, many scored poorly on the reliability of their information either because they were produced in a non-evidence-based way or because they lacking currency. It is important that patients are guided to reputable, location-specific sources of information online, especially because prominent search engine rank does not guarantee reliability of information.« less

  12. Forecasting an invasive species’ distribution with global distribution data, local data, and physiological information

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Young, Nicholas E.; Talbert, Marian; Talbert, Colin

    2018-01-01

    Understanding invasive species distributions and potential invasions often requires broad‐scale information on the environmental tolerances of the species. Further, resource managers are often faced with knowing these broad‐scale relationships as well as nuanced environmental factors related to their landscape that influence where an invasive species occurs and potentially could occur. Using invasive buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris), we developed global models and local models for Saguaro National Park, Arizona, USA, based on location records and literature on physiological tolerances to environmental factors to investigate whether environmental relationships of a species at a global scale are also important at local scales. In addition to correlative models with five commonly used algorithms, we also developed a model using a priori user‐defined relationships between occurrence and environmental characteristics based on a literature review. All correlative models at both scales performed well based on statistical evaluations. The user‐defined curves closely matched those produced by the correlative models, indicating that the correlative models may be capturing mechanisms driving the distribution of buffelgrass. Given climate projections for the region, both global and local models indicate that conditions at Saguaro National Park may become more suitable for buffelgrass. Combining global and local data with correlative models and physiological information provided a holistic approach to forecasting invasive species distributions.

  13. Reference evapotranspiration forecasting based on local meteorological and global climate information screened by partial mutual information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fang, Wei; Huang, Shengzhi; Huang, Qiang; Huang, Guohe; Meng, Erhao; Luan, Jinkai

    2018-06-01

    In this study, reference evapotranspiration (ET0) forecasting models are developed for the least economically developed regions subject to meteorological data scarcity. Firstly, the partial mutual information (PMI) capable of capturing the linear and nonlinear dependence is investigated regarding its utility to identify relevant predictors and exclude those that are redundant through the comparison with partial linear correlation. An efficient input selection technique is crucial for decreasing model data requirements. Then, the interconnection between global climate indices and regional ET0 is identified. Relevant climatic indices are introduced as additional predictors to comprise information regarding ET0, which ought to be provided by meteorological data unavailable. The case study in the Jing River and Beiluo River basins, China, reveals that PMI outperforms the partial linear correlation in excluding the redundant information, favouring the yield of smaller predictor sets. The teleconnection analysis identifies the correlation between Nino 1 + 2 and regional ET0, indicating influences of ENSO events on the evapotranspiration process in the study area. Furthermore, introducing Nino 1 + 2 as predictors helps to yield more accurate ET0 forecasts. A model performance comparison also shows that non-linear stochastic models (SVR or RF with input selection through PMI) do not always outperform linear models (MLR with inputs screen by linear correlation). However, the former can offer quite comparable performance depending on smaller predictor sets. Therefore, efforts such as screening model inputs through PMI and incorporating global climatic indices interconnected with ET0 can benefit the development of ET0 forecasting models suitable for data-scarce regions.

  14. Understanding of how older adults with low vision obtain, process, and understand health information and services.

    PubMed

    Kim, Hyung Nam

    2017-10-16

    Twenty-five years after the Americans with Disabilities Act, there has still been a lack of advancement of accessibility in healthcare for people with visual impairments, particularly older adults with low vision. This study aims to advance understanding of how older adults with low vision obtain, process, and use health information and services, and to seek opportunities of information technology to support them. A convenience sample of 10 older adults with low vision participated in semi-structured phone interviews, which were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim for analysis. Participants shared various concerns in accessing, understanding, and using health information, care services, and multimedia technologies. Two main themes and nine subthemes emerged from the analysis. Due to the concerns, older adults with low vision tended to fail to obtain the full range of all health information and services to meet their specific needs. Those with low vision still rely on residual vision such that multimedia-based information which can be useful, but it should still be designed to ensure its accessibility, usability, and understandability.

  15. Critical assessment of pediatric neurosurgery patient/parent educational information obtained via the Internet.

    PubMed

    Garcia, Michael; Daugherty, Christopher; Ben Khallouq, Bertha; Maugans, Todd

    2018-05-01

    OBJECTIVE The Internet is used frequently by patients and family members to acquire information about pediatric neurosurgical conditions. The sources, nature, accuracy, and usefulness of this information have not been examined recently. The authors analyzed the results from searches of 10 common pediatric neurosurgical terms using a novel scoring test to assess the value of the educational information obtained. METHODS Google and Bing searches were performed for 10 common pediatric neurosurgical topics (concussion, craniosynostosis, hydrocephalus, pediatric brain tumor, pediatric Chiari malformation, pediatric epilepsy surgery, pediatric neurosurgery, plagiocephaly, spina bifida, and tethered spinal cord). The first 10 "hits" obtained with each search engine were analyzed using the Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose (CRAAP) test, which assigns a numerical score in each of 5 domains. Agreement between results was assessed for 1) concurrent searches with Google and Bing; 2) Google searches over time (6 months apart); 3) Google searches using mobile and PC platforms concurrently; and 4) searches using privacy settings. Readability was assessed with an online analytical tool. RESULTS Google and Bing searches yielded information with similar CRAAP scores (mean 72% and 75%, respectively), but with frequently differing results (58% concordance/matching results). There was a high level of agreement (72% concordance) over time for Google searches and also between searches using general and privacy settings (92% concordance). Government sources scored the best in both CRAAP score and readability. Hospitals and universities were the most prevalent sources, but these sources had the lowest CRAAP scores, due in part to an abundance of self-marketing. The CRAAP scores for mobile and desktop platforms did not differ significantly (p = 0.49). CONCLUSIONS Google and Bing searches yielded useful educational information, using either mobile or PC platforms. Most

  16. Global Rural Autism Asperger Information Network: A Distance Learning Inservice Training Program.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bock, Marjorie A.; Swinney, Lori; Smart, Kathy

    The University of North Dakota's Global Rural Autism Asperger Information Network (GRAAIN) provides a special graduate certificate program in Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) consisting of six online courses. The program started over 4 years ago as a pilot program to provide specialized ASD training to educators and personnel serving children with…

  17. The GRIN-Global Information Management System – A Preview and Opportunity for Public User Input

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The GRIN-Global Information Management System, under development for the past two years, will provide the world's crop genebanks and plant genetic resource (PGR) users with a powerful, flexible, easy-to-use PGR information management system. Developed jointly by the USDA Agricultural Research Servi...

  18. Global land information system (GLIS) access to worldwide Landsat data

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Smith, Timothy B.; Goodale, Katherine L.

    1993-01-01

    The Landsat Technical Working Group (LTWG) and the Landsat Ground Station Operations Working Group (LGSOWG) have encouraged Landsat receiving stations around the world to share information about their data holdings through the exchange of metadata records. Receiving stations forward their metadata records to the U.S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center (EDC) on a quarterly basis. The EDC maintains the records for each station, coordinates changes to the database, and provides metadata to the stations as requested. The result is a comprehensive international database listing most of the world's Landsat data acquisitions This exchange of information began in the early 1980's with the inclusion in the EDC database os scenes acquired by a receiving station in Italy. Through the years other stations have agreed to participate; currently ten of the seventeen stations actively share their metadata records. Coverage maps have been generated to depict the status of the database. The Worldwide Landsat database is also available though the Global Land Information System (GLIS).

  19. Transforming Legacy Systems to Obtain Information Superiority

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2001-01-01

    is imperative that innovative technologies be developed to enable legacy weapon systems to exploit the information revolution, achieve information ... dominance , and meet the required operational tempo. This paper presents an embedded-system architecture, open system middleware services, and a software

  20. Development of a Method to Obtain More Accurate General and Oral Health Related Information Retrospectively

    PubMed Central

    A, Golkari; A, Sabokseir; D, Blane; A, Sheiham; RG, Watt

    2017-01-01

    Statement of Problem: Early childhood is a crucial period of life as it affects one’s future health. However, precise data on adverse events during this period is usually hard to access or collect, especially in developing countries. Objectives: This paper first reviews the existing methods for retrospective data collection in health and social sciences, and then introduces a new method/tool for obtaining more accurate general and oral health related information from early childhood retrospectively. Materials and Methods: The Early Childhood Events Life-Grid (ECEL) was developed to collect information on the type and time of health-related adverse events during the early years of life, by questioning the parents. The validity of ECEL and the accuracy of information obtained by this method were assessed in a pilot study and in a main study of 30 parents of 8 to 11 year old children from Shiraz (Iran). Responses obtained from parents using the final ECEL were compared with the recorded health insurance documents. Results: There was an almost perfect agreement between the health insurance and ECEL data sets (Kappa value=0.95 and p < 0.001). Interviewees remembered the important events more accurately (100% exact timing match in case of hospitalization). Conclusions: The Early Childhood Events Life-Grid method proved to be highly accurate when compared with recorded medical documents. PMID:28959773

  1. [The use of automated processing of information obtained during space flights for the monitoring and evaluation of airborne pollution].

    PubMed

    Bagmanov, B Kh; Mikhaĭlova, A Iu; Pavlov, S V

    1997-01-01

    The article describes experience on use of automated processing of information obtained during spaceflights for analysis of urban air pollution. The authors present a method for processing of information obtained during spaceflights and show how to identify foci of industrial release and area of their spread within and beyond the cities.

  2. 24 CFR 960.205 - Drug use by applicants: Obtaining information from drug treatment facility.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-04-01

    .... This section addresses a PHA's authority to request and obtain information from drug abuse treatment... household member. (2) Drug abuse treatment facility. An entity: (i) That holds itself out as providing, and... consent forms signed by such household member that: (i) Requests any drug abuse treatment facility to...

  3. 24 CFR 960.205 - Drug use by applicants: Obtaining information from drug treatment facility.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    .... This section addresses a PHA's authority to request and obtain information from drug abuse treatment... household member. (2) Drug abuse treatment facility. An entity: (i) That holds itself out as providing, and... consent forms signed by such household member that: (i) Requests any drug abuse treatment facility to...

  4. 24 CFR 960.205 - Drug use by applicants: Obtaining information from drug treatment facility.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    .... This section addresses a PHA's authority to request and obtain information from drug abuse treatment... household member. (2) Drug abuse treatment facility. An entity: (i) That holds itself out as providing, and... consent forms signed by such household member that: (i) Requests any drug abuse treatment facility to...

  5. 24 CFR 960.205 - Drug use by applicants: Obtaining information from drug treatment facility.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    .... This section addresses a PHA's authority to request and obtain information from drug abuse treatment... household member. (2) Drug abuse treatment facility. An entity: (i) That holds itself out as providing, and... consent forms signed by such household member that: (i) Requests any drug abuse treatment facility to...

  6. 24 CFR 960.205 - Drug use by applicants: Obtaining information from drug treatment facility.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    .... This section addresses a PHA's authority to request and obtain information from drug abuse treatment... household member. (2) Drug abuse treatment facility. An entity: (i) That holds itself out as providing, and... consent forms signed by such household member that: (i) Requests any drug abuse treatment facility to...

  7. Globalization, Information Technology and Higher Education in Nigeria: The Roles of Library Professionals

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Uwhekadom, Ejimaji Emmanuel; Olawolu, Oladunni Elizabeth

    2013-01-01

    The influence of globalization and information technology on higher education in Nigeria was investigated through a descriptive survey design. Forty-five professional librarians from University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni Port Harcourt, Federal College of Education (Technical) Omoku Rivers…

  8. Use of social media and internet to obtain health information by rural adolescent mothers.

    PubMed

    Logsdon, M Cynthia; Mittelberg, Meghan; Myers, John

    2015-02-01

    Adolescent mothers residing in rural areas need accurate health information to care for themselves and their babies. The purpose of this study was to determine the use of social media and Internet by adolescent mothers residing in rural areas, particularly in regard to obtaining health information. Using a cross-sectional design, a convenience sample of adolescent mothers living in a rural county in a state located in the southern U.S. (n = 15), completed the Pew Internet Survey during home visits with nurses from a community health agency. All adolescent mothers accessed Internet using cell phones (93%) or computers (100%). Many adolescent mothers sent or received over 50 text messages per day. Thirty-three percent of adolescent mothers searched for health information on the Internet every few weeks; 27% received health information from Facebook. Communication of health information using the Internet and social media may be effective with adolescent mothers residing in rural areas. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. 77 FR 58412 - Meeting of the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative Federal Advisory Committee

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-09-20

    ... described at www.it.ojp.gov/global . DATES: The meeting will take place on Wednesday, October 24, 2012, from...: This is not a toll-free number]; Email: [email protected]gov . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This...

  10. 40 CFR 1515.10 - What information is available, and how can it be obtained?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... can it be obtained? 1515.10 Section 1515.10 Protection of Environment COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY... Council on Environmental Quality will permit copying of any available material but will reserve the right... the Freedom of Information Act as amended (5 U.S.C. 552(b)). (c) The legislative history of the...

  11. Optimal global value of information trials: better aligning manufacturer and decision maker interests and enabling feasible risk sharing.

    PubMed

    Eckermann, Simon; Willan, Andrew R

    2013-05-01

    Risk sharing arrangements relate to adjusting payments for new health technologies given evidence of their performance over time. Such arrangements rely on prospective information regarding the incremental net benefit of the new technology, and its use in practice. However, once the new technology has been adopted in a particular jurisdiction, randomized clinical trials within that jurisdiction are likely to be infeasible and unethical in the cases where they would be most helpful, i.e. with current evidence of positive while uncertain incremental health and net monetary benefit. Informed patients in these cases would likely be reluctant to participate in a trial, preferring instead to receive the new technology with certainty. Consequently, informing risk sharing arrangements within a jurisdiction is problematic given the infeasibility of collecting prospective trial data. To overcome such problems, we demonstrate that global trials facilitate trialling post adoption, leading to more complete and robust risk sharing arrangements that mitigate the impact of costs of reversal on expected value of information in jurisdictions who adopt while a global trial is undertaken. More generally, optimally designed global trials offer distinct advantages over locally optimal solutions for decision makers and manufacturers alike: avoiding opportunity costs of delay in jurisdictions that adopt; overcoming barriers to evidence collection; and improving levels of expected implementation. Further, the greater strength and translatability of evidence across jurisdictions inherent in optimal global trial design reduces barriers to translation across jurisdictions characteristic of local trials. Consequently, efficiently designed global trials better align the interests of decision makers and manufacturers, increasing the feasibility of risk sharing and the expected strength of evidence over local trials, up until the point that current evidence is globally sufficient.

  12. The Global Positioning System: Theory and operation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tucker, Lester Plunkett

    Scope and method of study. The purpose of this study is to document the theory, development, and training needs of the United States Global Positioning System for the United States Air Force. This subject area had very little information and to assess the United States Air Force training needs required an investigation into existing training accomplished on the Global Positioning System. The United States Air Force has only one place to obtain the data at Headquarters Air Education and Training Command. Findings and conclusion. The United States Air Force, at the time of this study, does not have a theory and operations course dealing with the newest technology advancement in world navigation. Although this new technology is being provided on aircraft in the form of new navigation hardware, no official course of study is provided by the United States Air Force to it's pilots and navigators dealing with theory and operation. Based on the latest reports dealing with the Global Positioning System, a course on the Global Positioning System was developed in the Instructional Systems Design format to provide background information and understanding of this new technology. Readers of this study must be aware that the information contained in this study is very dynamic. Technology is advancing so fast in this area that it might make this information obsolete in a short amount of time.

  13. 25 CFR 1000.73 - Once a Tribe/Consortium has been awarded a grant, may the Tribe/Consortium obtain information...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Once a Tribe/Consortium has been awarded a grant, may the Tribe/Consortium obtain information from a non-BIA bureau? 1000.73 Section 1000.73 Indians OFFICE OF THE... § 1000.73 Once a Tribe/Consortium has been awarded a grant, may the Tribe/Consortium obtain information...

  14. Tracing information flow on a global scale using Internet chain-letter data

    PubMed Central

    Liben-Nowell, David; Kleinberg, Jon

    2008-01-01

    Although information, news, and opinions continuously circulate in the worldwide social network, the actual mechanics of how any single piece of information spreads on a global scale have been a mystery. Here, we trace such information-spreading processes at a person-by-person level using methods to reconstruct the propagation of massively circulated Internet chain letters. We find that rather than fanning out widely, reaching many people in very few steps according to “small-world” principles, the progress of these chain letters proceeds in a narrow but very deep tree-like pattern, continuing for several hundred steps. This suggests a new and more complex picture for the spread of information through a social network. We describe a probabilistic model based on network clustering and asynchronous response times that produces trees with this characteristic structure on social-network data. PMID:18353985

  15. Globalization: Ecological consequences of global-scale connectivity in people, resources and information

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Globalization is a phenomenon affecting all facets of the Earth System. Within the context of ecological systems, it is becoming increasingly apparent that global connectivity among terrestrial systems, the atmosphere, and oceans is driving many ecological dynamics at finer scales and pushing thresh...

  16. Progress in Developing an Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (IG3IS)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Decola, P.; Butler, J. H.

    2015-12-01

    Recent studies suggest that, if society can do no better than the commitments it's already made to reducing greenhouse gases, we will achieve a 2C threshold by 2030 and a 3C threshold by 2050 [e.g., Jackson et al., 2015]. Given that a global average of 2C or 3C translates to about three times that (6C, 9C) over continents, this portends a future of on-going climate change for generations to come, with all of its concomitant struggles in adapting. It also portends a global society looking increasingly at ways to mitigate the cause(s) of climate change. Recent events have propelled that to some extent already, but it is likely we will see more as time goes on. Nevertheless, there is a huge difference between making commitments and achieving them. Nations, states, cities, resource managers, energy interests, and other invested parties will be looking at ways to reduce emissions, driven either by markets, taxes, or other relevant policies. Anticipating this need, WMO has begun developing an implementation plan for an Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (IG3IS). To work effectively, an IG3IS must integrate high quality observations from multiple and varied platforms, incorporate observation-based information from transport models, and deliver useful information at sub-continental, policy-relevant scales. Existing surface-based networks, emerging networks in developing countries, and new aircraft-based measurements and satellite observations make a difference, but additional observations and improved transport modeling are critical. This presentation will look at what is available, what the gaps are, and how IG3IS intends to address them.

  17. Temporal Patterns of Happiness and Information in a Global Social Network: Hedonometrics and Twitter

    PubMed Central

    Dodds, Peter Sheridan; Harris, Kameron Decker; Kloumann, Isabel M.; Bliss, Catherine A.; Danforth, Christopher M.

    2011-01-01

    Individual happiness is a fundamental societal metric. Normally measured through self-report, happiness has often been indirectly characterized and overshadowed by more readily quantifiable economic indicators such as gross domestic product. Here, we examine expressions made on the online, global microblog and social networking service Twitter, uncovering and explaining temporal variations in happiness and information levels over timescales ranging from hours to years. Our data set comprises over 46 billion words contained in nearly 4.6 billion expressions posted over a 33 month span by over 63 million unique users. In measuring happiness, we construct a tunable, real-time, remote-sensing, and non-invasive, text-based hedonometer. In building our metric, made available with this paper, we conducted a survey to obtain happiness evaluations of over 10,000 individual words, representing a tenfold size improvement over similar existing word sets. Rather than being ad hoc, our word list is chosen solely by frequency of usage, and we show how a highly robust and tunable metric can be constructed and defended. PMID:22163266

  18. Temporal patterns of happiness and information in a global social network: hedonometrics and Twitter.

    PubMed

    Dodds, Peter Sheridan; Harris, Kameron Decker; Kloumann, Isabel M; Bliss, Catherine A; Danforth, Christopher M

    2011-01-01

    Individual happiness is a fundamental societal metric. Normally measured through self-report, happiness has often been indirectly characterized and overshadowed by more readily quantifiable economic indicators such as gross domestic product. Here, we examine expressions made on the online, global microblog and social networking service Twitter, uncovering and explaining temporal variations in happiness and information levels over timescales ranging from hours to years. Our data set comprises over 46 billion words contained in nearly 4.6 billion expressions posted over a 33 month span by over 63 million unique users. In measuring happiness, we construct a tunable, real-time, remote-sensing, and non-invasive, text-based hedonometer. In building our metric, made available with this paper, we conducted a survey to obtain happiness evaluations of over 10,000 individual words, representing a tenfold size improvement over similar existing word sets. Rather than being ad hoc, our word list is chosen solely by frequency of usage, and we show how a highly robust and tunable metric can be constructed and defended.

  19. Challenges of Obtaining Informed Consent in Emergency Ward: A Qualitative Study in One Iranian Hospital

    PubMed Central

    Davoudi, Nayyereh; Nayeri, Nahid Dehghan; Zokaei, Mohammad Saeed; Fazeli, Nematallah

    2017-01-01

    Background and Objective: Regarding the fact that emergency ward has unique characteristics, whose uniqueness affects informed consent processes by creating specific challenges. Hence, it seems necessary to identify the process and challenges of informed consent in the emergency ward through a qualitative study to understand actual patients’ and health care providers’ experiences, beliefs, values, and feelings about the informed consent in the emergency ward. Through such studies, new insight can be gained on the process of informed consent and its challenges with the hope that the resulting knowledge will enable the promotion of ethical, legal as well as effective health services to the patients in the emergency ward. Method: In this qualitative study, research field was one of the emergency wards of educational and public hospitals in Iran. Field work and participant observation were carried out for 515 hours from June 2014 to March 2016. Also, conversations and semi-structured interviews based on the observations were conducted. The participants of the study were nurses and physicians working in the emergency ward, as well as patients and their attendants who were involved in the process of obtaining informed consent. Results: Three main categories were extracted from the data: a sense of frustration; reverse protection; and culture of paternalism in consent process. Conclusion: Findings of this study can be utilized in correcting the structures and processes of obtaining informed consent together with promotion of patients' ethical and legal care in emergency ward. In this way, the approaches in consent process will be changed from paternalistic approach to patient-centered care which concomitantly protects patient’s autonomy. PMID:29399235

  20. NASA Global Atmospheric Sampling Program (GASP). Data report for tape VL0001. [data management and data retrieval of information from environmental surveys

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Holdeman, J. D.; Lezberg, E. A.

    1976-01-01

    Atmospheric trace constituents in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere are now being measured as part of the NASA Global Atmospheric Sampling Program (GASP), using fully automated air sampling systems on board commercial 747 aircraft in routine airline service. Measurements of atmospheric ozone and related meteorological and flight information obtained during several GASP flights in March 1975 are now available from the National Climatic Center, Asheville, North Carolina. In addition to the data from the aircraft, tropopause pressure data obtained from the National Meteorological Center (NMC) archives for the dates of the flights are included. This report is the first of a series of reports which describes the data currently available from GASP, including flight routes and dates, instrumentation, the data processing procedure used, and data tape specifications.

  1. Developing SoilML as a global standard for the collation and transfer of soil data and information.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Montanarella, Luca; Wilson, Peter; Cox, Simon; McBratney, Alex; Ahamed, Sonya; McMillan, Bob; Jacquier, David; Fortner, Jim

    2010-05-01

    There is an increasing need to collect, collate and share soil data and information within countries, across regions and globally. Timely access to consistent and authoritative data and information is critical to issues related to food production, climate change, water management, energy production and biodiversityl. Soil data and information is managed by numerous agencies and organisations using a plethora of processes, scales and standards. A number of national and international activities and projects are currently dealing with the issues associated with collation of disparate data sets. Standards are being developed for data storage, transfer and collation like, for example, in the GobalSoilMap.net project, e-SOTER and the EU Inspire GS-SOIL. Individually these will not provide a single internationally recognised and adopted standard for soil data and information exchange. A recent GlobalSoilMap.net meeting held in Wageningen, The Netherlands, discussed the needs of a harmonized information model for collation of a global 90 metre grid of key soil attributes (organic carbon, soil texture, pH, depth to bedrock/impeding layer, and predictions of bulk density and available water capacity) at six specified depth increments. The meeting considered a number of existing data base implementations (such as ASRIS, NASIS, WISE, SOTER) as well as emerging abstract information models that are being expressed in UML (such as e-SOTER). It examined related information models, such as GeoSciML and the lessons learnt in developing and implementing such community agreed models, features and vocabularies. There is a need to develop a global soil information standard, to be called SoilML, that would allow access and use of data across a broad range of international initiatives (such as GEOSS and INSPIRE) as well as supporting national, regional and local data interoperability and integration. The meeting agreed to adopt the interoperability approaches of formalising the

  2. A global magnetic anomaly map. [obtained from POGO satellite data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Regan, R. D.; Davis, W. M.; Cain, J. C.

    1974-01-01

    A subset of POGO satellite magnetometer data has been formed that is suitable for analysis of crustal magnetic anomalies. Using a thirteenth order field model, fit to these data, magnetic residuals have been calculated over the world to latitude limits of plus 50 deg. These residuals averaged over one degree latitude-longitude blocks represent a detailed global magnetic anomaly map derived solely from satellite data. Preliminary analysis of the map indicates that the anomalies are real and of geological origin.

  3. Global Maritime Awareness

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-06-01

    to maritime information Mission: Act as a Maritime Awareness Coordinator and data critical to building situational awareness . We are...Maritime Awareness Technical Sub-committee (NMATS) July 2008 Desired Outcome Maritime Information Exchange Vision: Global maritime information ...Global Maritime Situational Awareness I i i i 1 Information Hubs n t at ves: . 2. MSSIS (Maritime Safety & Security Information Systems

  4. Mutual information estimation reveals global associations between stimuli and biological processes

    PubMed Central

    Suzuki, Taiji; Sugiyama, Masashi; Kanamori, Takafumi; Sese, Jun

    2009-01-01

    Background Although microarray gene expression analysis has become popular, it remains difficult to interpret the biological changes caused by stimuli or variation of conditions. Clustering of genes and associating each group with biological functions are often used methods. However, such methods only detect partial changes within cell processes. Herein, we propose a method for discovering global changes within a cell by associating observed conditions of gene expression with gene functions. Results To elucidate the association, we introduce a novel feature selection method called Least-Squares Mutual Information (LSMI), which computes mutual information without density estimaion, and therefore LSMI can detect nonlinear associations within a cell. We demonstrate the effectiveness of LSMI through comparison with existing methods. The results of the application to yeast microarray datasets reveal that non-natural stimuli affect various biological processes, whereas others are no significant relation to specific cell processes. Furthermore, we discover that biological processes can be categorized into four types according to the responses of various stimuli: DNA/RNA metabolism, gene expression, protein metabolism, and protein localization. Conclusion We proposed a novel feature selection method called LSMI, and applied LSMI to mining the association between conditions of yeast and biological processes through microarray datasets. In fact, LSMI allows us to elucidate the global organization of cellular process control. PMID:19208155

  5. The NIAID Division of AIDS enterprise information system: integrated decision support for global clinical research programs

    PubMed Central

    Gupta, Nitin; Varghese, Suresh; Virkar, Hemant

    2011-01-01

    The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Division of AIDS (DAIDS) Enterprise Information System (DAIDS-ES) is a web-based system that supports NIAID in the scientific, strategic, and tactical management of its global clinical research programs for HIV/AIDS vaccines, prevention, and therapeutics. Different from most commercial clinical trials information systems, which are typically protocol-driven, the DAIDS-ES was built to exchange information with those types of systems and integrate it in ways that help scientific program directors lead the research effort and keep pace with the complex and ever-changing global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Whereas commercially available clinical trials support systems are not usually disease-focused, DAIDS-ES was specifically designed to capture and incorporate unique scientific, demographic, and logistical aspects of HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and vaccine research in order to provide a rich source of information to guide informed decision-making. Sharing data across its internal components and with external systems, using defined vocabularies, open standards and flexible interfaces, the DAIDS-ES enables NIAID, its global collaborators and stakeholders, access to timely, quality information about NIAID-supported clinical trials which is utilized to: (1) analyze the research portfolio, assess capacity, identify opportunities, and avoid redundancies; (2) help support study safety, quality, ethics, and regulatory compliance; (3) conduct evidence-based policy analysis and business process re-engineering for improved efficiency. This report summarizes how the DAIDS-ES was conceptualized, how it differs from typical clinical trial support systems, the rationale for key design choices, and examples of how it is being used to advance the efficiency and effectiveness of NIAID's HIV/AIDS clinical research programs. PMID:21816958

  6. The NIAID Division of AIDS enterprise information system: integrated decision support for global clinical research programs.

    PubMed

    Kagan, Jonathan M; Gupta, Nitin; Varghese, Suresh; Virkar, Hemant

    2011-12-01

    The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Division of AIDS (DAIDS) Enterprise Information System (DAIDS-ES) is a web-based system that supports NIAID in the scientific, strategic, and tactical management of its global clinical research programs for HIV/AIDS vaccines, prevention, and therapeutics. Different from most commercial clinical trials information systems, which are typically protocol-driven, the DAIDS-ES was built to exchange information with those types of systems and integrate it in ways that help scientific program directors lead the research effort and keep pace with the complex and ever-changing global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Whereas commercially available clinical trials support systems are not usually disease-focused, DAIDS-ES was specifically designed to capture and incorporate unique scientific, demographic, and logistical aspects of HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and vaccine research in order to provide a rich source of information to guide informed decision-making. Sharing data across its internal components and with external systems, using defined vocabularies, open standards and flexible interfaces, the DAIDS-ES enables NIAID, its global collaborators and stakeholders, access to timely, quality information about NIAID-supported clinical trials which is utilized to: (1) analyze the research portfolio, assess capacity, identify opportunities, and avoid redundancies; (2) help support study safety, quality, ethics, and regulatory compliance; (3) conduct evidence-based policy analysis and business process re-engineering for improved efficiency. This report summarizes how the DAIDS-ES was conceptualized, how it differs from typical clinical trial support systems, the rationale for key design choices, and examples of how it is being used to advance the efficiency and effectiveness of NIAID's HIV/AIDS clinical research programs.

  7. An exploration of strategies used by older people to obtain information about health- and social care services in the community.

    PubMed

    Mc Grath, Margaret; Clancy, Kathleen; Kenny, Anne

    2016-10-01

    To explore the strategies used by older people living in Ireland to obtain information about community health and social services. A qualitative exploratory design was used. Focus groups (n = 3) were conducted with community dwelling older people (n = 17). A series of vignettes were used to guide discussion regarding hypothetical situations that approximated real-life scenarios for older people. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using content analysis. Obtaining information about community health and social services is an ongoing process that requires continuous commitment by older adults. Key strategies which emerged from the data included (i) taking a proactive stance towards accessing health information, (ii) making use of personal networks in your community and (iii) developing 'insider' knowledge. Older people in this study had a proactive approach to obtaining health information and identified the importance of taking responsibility for managing their own needs. Despite this, obtaining basic information about community health and social services was a challenging and time-consuming process. Future research should focus on developing health literacy interventions that build upon and expand the strategies currently used by older people. © 2015 The Authors. Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  8. The Survey of Fires in Buildings. Third Report: The Use of Information Obtained From Fire Surveys

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Silcock, A.

    1973-01-01

    The previous two reports in this series gave details of the general. scope of the pilot exercise and methods by which it was carried out. In addition the nature of the information obtained was illustrated by preliminary analyses of the house and industrial fires surveyed. Some brief comments on the use of the information were made. This report indicates a method of assessing the nation wide effects of applying conclusions drawn from the results of limited numbers of surveys and considers the use of the information for specific purposes.

  9. Is central dogma a global property of cellular information flow?

    PubMed

    Piras, Vincent; Tomita, Masaru; Selvarajoo, Kumar

    2012-01-01

    The central dogma of molecular biology has come under scrutiny in recent years. Here, we reviewed high-throughput mRNA and protein expression data of Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and several mammalian cells. At both single cell and population scales, the statistical comparisons between the entire transcriptomes and proteomes show clear correlation structures. In contrast, the pair-wise correlations of single transcripts to proteins show nullity. These data suggest that the organizing structure guiding cellular processes is observed at omics-wide scale, and not at single molecule level. The central dogma, thus, globally emerges as an average integrated flow of cellular information.

  10. Protein structure and evolution: are they constrained globally by a principle derived from information theory?

    PubMed

    Hatton, Leslie; Warr, Gregory

    2015-01-01

    That the physicochemical properties of amino acids constrain the structure, function and evolution of proteins is not in doubt. However, principles derived from information theory may also set bounds on the structure (and thus also the evolution) of proteins. Here we analyze the global properties of the full set of proteins in release 13-11 of the SwissProt database, showing by experimental test of predictions from information theory that their collective structure exhibits properties that are consistent with their being guided by a conservation principle. This principle (Conservation of Information) defines the global properties of systems composed of discrete components each of which is in turn assembled from discrete smaller pieces. In the system of proteins, each protein is a component, and each protein is assembled from amino acids. Central to this principle is the inter-relationship of the unique amino acid count and total length of a protein and its implications for both average protein length and occurrence of proteins with specific unique amino acid counts. The unique amino acid count is simply the number of distinct amino acids (including those that are post-translationally modified) that occur in a protein, and is independent of the number of times that the particular amino acid occurs in the sequence. Conservation of Information does not operate at the local level (it is independent of the physicochemical properties of the amino acids) where the influences of natural selection are manifest in the variety of protein structure and function that is well understood. Rather, this analysis implies that Conservation of Information would define the global bounds within which the whole system of proteins is constrained; thus it appears to be acting to constrain evolution at a level different from natural selection, a conclusion that appears counter-intuitive but is supported by the studies described herein.

  11. Robust active contour via additive local and global intensity information based on local entropy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yuan, Shuai; Monkam, Patrice; Zhang, Feng; Luan, Fangjun; Koomson, Ben Alfred

    2018-01-01

    Active contour-based image segmentation can be a very challenging task due to many factors such as high intensity inhomogeneity, presence of noise, complex shape, weak boundaries objects, and dependence on the position of the initial contour. We propose a level set-based active contour method to segment complex shape objects from images corrupted by noise and high intensity inhomogeneity. The energy function of the proposed method results from combining the global intensity information and local intensity information with some regularization factors. First, the global intensity term is proposed based on a scheme formulation that considers two intensity values for each region instead of one, which outperforms the well-known Chan-Vese model in delineating the image information. Second, the local intensity term is formulated based on local entropy computed considering the distribution of the image brightness and using the generalized Gaussian distribution as the kernel function. Therefore, it can accurately handle high intensity inhomogeneity and noise. Moreover, our model is not dependent on the position occupied by the initial curve. Finally, extensive experiments using various images have been carried out to illustrate the performance of the proposed method.

  12. A new world natural vegetation map for global change studies.

    PubMed

    Lapola, David M; Oyama, Marcos D; Nobre, Carlos A; Sampaio, Gilvan

    2008-06-01

    We developed a new world natural vegetation map at 1 degree horizontal resolution for use in global climate models. We used the Dorman and Sellers vegetation classification with inclusion of a new biome: tropical seasonal forest, which refers to both deciduous and semi-deciduous tropical forests. SSiB biogeophysical parameters values for this new biome type are presented. Under this new vegetation classification we obtained a consensus map between two global natural vegetation maps widely used in climate studies. We found that these two maps assign different biomes in ca. 1/3 of the continental grid points. To obtain a new global natural vegetation map, non-consensus areas were filled according to regional consensus based on more than 100 regional maps available on the internet. To minimize the risk of using poor quality information, the regional maps were obtained from reliable internet sources, and the filling procedure was based on the consensus among several regional maps obtained from independent sources. The new map was designed to reproduce accurately both the large-scale distribution of the main vegetation types (as it builds on two reliable global natural vegetation maps) and the regional details (as it is based on the consensus of regional maps).

  13. Sharing Data to Build a Medical Information Commons: From Bermuda to the Global Alliance.

    PubMed

    Cook-Deegan, Robert; Ankeny, Rachel A; Maxson Jones, Kathryn

    2017-08-31

    The Human Genome Project modeled its open science ethos on nematode biology, most famously through daily release of DNA sequence data based on the 1996 Bermuda Principles. That open science philosophy persists, but daily, unfettered release of data has had to adapt to constraints occasioned by the use of data from individual people, broader use of data not only by scientists but also by clinicians and individuals, the global reach of genomic applications and diverse national privacy and research ethics laws, and the rising prominence of a diverse commercial genomics sector. The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health was established to enable the data sharing that is essential for making meaning of genomic variation. Data-sharing policies and practices will continue to evolve as researchers, health professionals, and individuals strive to construct a global medical and scientific information commons.

  14. ISBT 128: a global information standard

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    ISBT 128 is the global standard for the identification, labeling and information transfer of human blood, cell, tissue and organ products across international borders and disparate health care systems. The system has been designed and perfected over almost two decades to ensure accuracy, safety and efficiency for the benefit of donors, patients and health care workers worldwide. The use of the ISBT 128 standard has grown steadily since a blood bank in Estonia first implemented it in 1997. Today, more than 3,500 facility identifiers for the use of ISBT 128 have been assigned to organizations in 67 countries on six continents. The standard has been accepted by a variety of international standard setting organizations and government regulators. It is managed by ICCBBA, a not-for-profit organization based in the USA that is governed by an international volunteer board of directors. Members of the Board of Directors represent the fields of practice affected by the standard. Advisory groups comprising international experts guide the ongoing development of the ISBT 128 standard to ensure it continues to meet the needs of its users. While there is a cost associated with the implementation and use of the standard, the clear benefits in terms of improved patient safety and ability to meet regulatory traceability requirements justify the costs. PMID:20652420

  15. Is central dogma a global property of cellular information flow?

    PubMed Central

    Piras, Vincent; Tomita, Masaru; Selvarajoo, Kumar

    2012-01-01

    The central dogma of molecular biology has come under scrutiny in recent years. Here, we reviewed high-throughput mRNA and protein expression data of Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and several mammalian cells. At both single cell and population scales, the statistical comparisons between the entire transcriptomes and proteomes show clear correlation structures. In contrast, the pair-wise correlations of single transcripts to proteins show nullity. These data suggest that the organizing structure guiding cellular processes is observed at omics-wide scale, and not at single molecule level. The central dogma, thus, globally emerges as an average integrated flow of cellular information. PMID:23189060

  16. 7 CFR 1.641 - How may parties obtain discovery of information needed for the case?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false How may parties obtain discovery of information needed for the case? 1.641 Section 1.641 Agriculture Office of the Secretary of Agriculture ADMINISTRATIVE... legal theories of an attorney. (g) Experts. Unless restricted by the ALJ, a party may discover any facts...

  17. Global polar geospatial information service retrieval based on search engine and ontology reasoning

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Chen, Nengcheng; E, Dongcheng; Di, Liping; Gong, Jianya; Chen, Zeqiang

    2007-01-01

    In order to improve the access precision of polar geospatial information service on web, a new methodology for retrieving global spatial information services based on geospatial service search and ontology reasoning is proposed, the geospatial service search is implemented to find the coarse service from web, the ontology reasoning is designed to find the refined service from the coarse service. The proposed framework includes standardized distributed geospatial web services, a geospatial service search engine, an extended UDDI registry, and a multi-protocol geospatial information service client. Some key technologies addressed include service discovery based on search engine and service ontology modeling and reasoning in the Antarctic geospatial context. Finally, an Antarctica multi protocol OWS portal prototype based on the proposed methodology is introduced.

  18. Workshop on the Development of an Experimental Global Drought Information System (GDIS): Overview of Workshop Goals

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schubert, Siegfried

    2012-01-01

    Among the key recommendations of a recent WCRP Workshop on Drought Predictability and Prediction in a Changing Climate is the development of an experimental global drought information system (GDIS). The timeliness of such an effort is evidenced by the wide aITay of relevant ongoing national and international (as well as regional and continental scale) efforts to provide drought information, including the US and North American drought monitors, and various integrating activities such as GEO and the Global Drought Portal. The workshop will review current capabilities and needs, and focus on the steps necessary to develop a GDIS that will build upon the extensive worldwide investments that have already been made in developing drought monitoring (including new space-based observations), drought risk management, and climate prediction capahilities.

  19. 76 FR 64010 - Special Rules Governing Certain Information Obtained Under the Clean Air Act: Technical Correction

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-10-17

    ... natural gas. 211112 Natural gas liquid extraction facilities. Petrochemical Production 32511 Ethylene.... Suppliers of Natural Gas and NGLs 221210 Natural gas distribution facilities. 211112 Natural gas liquid... Gas Reporting Rule, which are provided in the Special Rules Governing Certain Information Obtained...

  20. SoilInfo App: global soil information on your palm

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hengl, Tomislav; Mendes de Jesus, Jorge

    2015-04-01

    ISRIC ' World Soil Information has released in 2014 and app for mobile de- vices called 'SoilInfo' (http://soilinfo-app.org) and which aims at providing free access to the global soil data. SoilInfo App (available for Android v.4.0 Ice Cream Sandwhich or higher, and Apple v.6.x and v.7.x iOS) currently serves the Soil- Grids1km data ' a stack of soil property and class maps at six standard depths at a resolution of 1 km (30 arc second) predicted using automated geostatistical mapping and global soil data models. The list of served soil data includes: soil organic carbon (), soil pH, sand, silt and clay fractions (%), bulk density (kg/m3), cation exchange capacity of the fine earth fraction (cmol+/kg), coarse fragments (%), World Reference Base soil groups, and USDA Soil Taxonomy suborders (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0105992). New soil properties and classes will be continuously added to the system. SoilGrids1km are available for download under a Creative Commons non-commercial license via http://soilgrids.org. They are also accessible via a Representational State Transfer API (http://rest.soilgrids.org) service. SoilInfo App mimics common weather apps, but is also largely inspired by the crowdsourcing systems such as the OpenStreetMap, Geo-wiki and similar. Two development aspects of the SoilInfo App and SoilGrids are constantly being worked on: Data quality in terms of accuracy of spatial predictions and derived information, and Data usability in terms of ease of access and ease of use (i.e. flexibility of the cyberinfrastructure / functionalities such as the REST SoilGrids API, SoilInfo App etc). The development focus in 2015 is on improving the thematic and spatial accuracy of SoilGrids predictions, primarily by using finer resolution covariates (250 m) and machine learning algorithms (such as random forests) to improve spatial predictions.

  1. 28 CFR 115.341 - Obtaining information from residents.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... ACT NATIONAL STANDARDS Standards for Juvenile Facilities Screening for Risk of Sexual Victimization... use information about each resident's personal history and behavior to reduce the risk of sexual abuse... instrument. (c) At a minimum, the agency shall attempt to ascertain information about: (1) Prior sexual...

  2. 28 CFR 115.341 - Obtaining information from residents.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... ACT NATIONAL STANDARDS Standards for Juvenile Facilities Screening for Risk of Sexual Victimization... use information about each resident's personal history and behavior to reduce the risk of sexual abuse... instrument. (c) At a minimum, the agency shall attempt to ascertain information about: (1) Prior sexual...

  3. 28 CFR 115.341 - Obtaining information from residents.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... ACT NATIONAL STANDARDS Standards for Juvenile Facilities Screening for Risk of Sexual Victimization... use information about each resident's personal history and behavior to reduce the risk of sexual abuse... instrument. (c) At a minimum, the agency shall attempt to ascertain information about: (1) Prior sexual...

  4. 50 CFR 221.41 - How may parties obtain discovery of information needed for the case?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... materials, it must show: (i) That it has substantial need of the materials in preparing its own case; and... legal theories of an attorney. (g) Experts. Unless restricted by the ALJ, a party may discover any facts...: (i) That it has a compelling need for the information; and (ii) That it cannot practicably obtain the...

  5. Personal efficacy, the information environment, and attitudes toward global warming and climate change in the United States.

    PubMed

    Kellstedt, Paul M; Zahran, Sammy; Vedlitz, Arnold

    2008-02-01

    Despite the growing scientific consensus about the risks of global warming and climate change, the mass media frequently portray the subject as one of great scientific controversy and debate. And yet previous studies of the mass public's subjective assessments of the risks of global warming and climate change have not sufficiently examined public informedness, public confidence in climate scientists, and the role of personal efficacy in affecting global warming outcomes. By examining the results of a survey on an original and representative sample of Americans, we find that these three forces-informedness, confidence in scientists, and personal efficacy-are related in interesting and unexpected ways, and exert significant influence on risk assessments of global warming and climate change. In particular, more informed respondents both feel less personally responsible for global warming, and also show less concern for global warming. We also find that confidence in scientists has unexpected effects: respondents with high confidence in scientists feel less responsible for global warming, and also show less concern for global warming. These results have substantial implications for the interaction between scientists and the public in general, and for the public discussion of global warming and climate change in particular.

  6. The role of global cloud climatologies in validating numerical models

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    HARSHVARDHAN

    1992-01-01

    Global maps of the monthly mean net upward longwave radiation flux at the ocean surface were obtained for April, July, October 1985 and January 1986. These maps were produced by blending information obtained from a combination of general circulation model cloud radiative forcing fields, the top of the atmosphere cloud radiative forcing from ERBE and TOVS profiles and sea surface temperature on ISCCP C1 tapes. The fields are compatible with known meteorological regimes of atmospheric water vapor content and cloudiness. There is a vast area of high net upward longwave radiation flux (greater than 80/sq Wm) in the eastern Pacific Ocean throughout most of the year. Areas of low net upward longwave radiation flux ((less than 40/sq Wm) are the tropical convective regions and extra tropical regions that tend to have persistent low cloud cover.The technique used relies on General Circulation Model simulations and so is subject to some of the uncertainties associated with the model. However, all input information regarding temperature, moisture, and cloud cover is from satellite data having near global coverage. This feature of the procedure alone warrants its consideration for further use in compiling global maps of longwave radiation.

  7. Lessons learned in building a global information network on chemicals (GINC).

    PubMed

    Kaminuma, Tsuguchika

    2005-09-01

    The Global Information Network on Chemicals (GINC) was a project to construct a worldwide information network linking international, national, and other organizations working for the safe management of chemicals. Proposed in 1993, the project started the next year and lasted almost 10 years. It was begun as a joint project of World Health Organization (WHO), International Labor Organization (ILO), and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and later endorsed by the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS). Asia, particularly East Asia and the Pacific islands, was chosen as the feasibility study region. The author's group then at the National Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS) of Japan led this initiative and hosted numerous meetings. At these meetings, tutorial sessions for communicating chemical safety expertise and emerging new information technologies relevant to the safe management of chemicals were offered. Our experience with this project, particularly the Web-based system and the tutorial sessions, may be of use to others involved with Web-based instruction and the training of chemical safety specialists from both developed and developing countries.

  8. 20 CFR 603.23 - What information must State UC agencies obtain from other agencies, and crossmatch with wage...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-04-01

    ... 20 Employees' Benefits 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What information must State UC agencies obtain from other agencies, and crossmatch with wage information, for purposes of an IEVS? 603.23 Section 603.23 Employees' Benefits EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR FEDERAL-STATE UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION (UC) PROGRAM;...

  9. Obtaining subjects' consent to publish identifying personal information: current practices and identifying potential issues.

    PubMed

    Yoshida, Akiko; Dowa, Yuri; Murakami, Hiromi; Kosugi, Shinji

    2013-11-25

    In studies publishing identifying personal information, obtaining consent is regarded as necessary, as it is impossible to ensure complete anonymity. However, current journal practices around specific points to consider when obtaining consent, the contents of consent forms and how consent forms are managed have not yet been fully examined. This study was conducted to identify potential issues surrounding consent to publish identifying personal information. Content analysis was carried out on instructions for authors and consent forms developed by academic journals in four fields (as classified by Journal Citation Reports): medicine general and internal, genetics and heredity, pediatrics, and psychiatry. An online questionnaire survey of editors working for journals that require the submission of consent forms was also conducted. Instructions for authors were reviewed for 491 academic journals (132 for medicine general and internal, 147 for genetics and heredity, 100 for pediatrics, and 112 for psychiatry). Approximately 40% (203: 74 for medicine general and internal, 31 for genetics and heredity, 58 for pediatrics, and 40 for psychiatry) stated that subject consent was necessary. The submission of consent forms was required by 30% (154) of the journals studied, and 10% (50) provided their own consent forms for authors to use. Two journals mentioned that the possible effects of publication on subjects should be considered. Many journal consent forms mentioned the difficulties in ensuring complete anonymity of subjects, but few addressed the study objective, the subjects' right to refuse consent and the withdrawal of consent. The main reason for requiring the submission of consent forms was to confirm that consent had been obtained. Approximately 40% of journals required subject consent to be obtained. However, differences were observed depending on the fields. Specific considerations were not always documented. There is a need to address issues around the study

  10. Obtaining subjects’ consent to publish identifying personal information: current practices and identifying potential issues

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background In studies publishing identifying personal information, obtaining consent is regarded as necessary, as it is impossible to ensure complete anonymity. However, current journal practices around specific points to consider when obtaining consent, the contents of consent forms and how consent forms are managed have not yet been fully examined. This study was conducted to identify potential issues surrounding consent to publish identifying personal information. Methods Content analysis was carried out on instructions for authors and consent forms developed by academic journals in four fields (as classified by Journal Citation Reports): medicine general and internal, genetics and heredity, pediatrics, and psychiatry. An online questionnaire survey of editors working for journals that require the submission of consent forms was also conducted. Results Instructions for authors were reviewed for 491 academic journals (132 for medicine general and internal, 147 for genetics and heredity, 100 for pediatrics, and 112 for psychiatry). Approximately 40% (203: 74 for medicine general and internal, 31 for genetics and heredity, 58 for pediatrics, and 40 for psychiatry) stated that subject consent was necessary. The submission of consent forms was required by 30% (154) of the journals studied, and 10% (50) provided their own consent forms for authors to use. Two journals mentioned that the possible effects of publication on subjects should be considered. Many journal consent forms mentioned the difficulties in ensuring complete anonymity of subjects, but few addressed the study objective, the subjects’ right to refuse consent and the withdrawal of consent. The main reason for requiring the submission of consent forms was to confirm that consent had been obtained. Conclusion Approximately 40% of journals required subject consent to be obtained. However, differences were observed depending on the fields. Specific considerations were not always documented. There is a need

  11. 45 CFR 73.735-803 - Prohibition against involvement in financial transactions based on information obtained through...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Prohibition against involvement in financial transactions based on information obtained through Federal employment. 73.735-803 Section 73.735-803 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL ADMINISTRATION STANDARDS OF CONDUCT Financial...

  12. Accessibility: global gateway to health literacy.

    PubMed

    Perlow, Ellen

    2010-01-01

    Health literacy, cited as essential to achieving Healthy People 2010's goals to "increase quality and years of healthy life" and to "eliminate health disparities," is defined by Healthy People as "the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions." Accessibility, by definition, the aforementioned "capacity to obtain," thus is health literacy's primary prerequisite. Accessibility's designation as the global gateway to health literacy is predicated also on life's realities: global aging and climate change, war and terrorism, and life-extending medical and technological advances. People with diverse access needs are health professionals' raison d'être. However, accessibility, consummately cross-cultural and universal, is virtually absent as a topic of health promotion and practice research and scholarly discussion of health literacy and equity. A call to action to place accessibility in its rightful premier position on the profession's agenda is issued.

  13. A Framework for Effective Assessment of Model-based Projections of Biodiversity to Inform the Next Generation of Global Conservation Targets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Myers, B.; Beard, T. D.; Weiskopf, S. R.; Jackson, S. T.; Tittensor, D.; Harfoot, M.; Senay, G. B.; Casey, K.; Lenton, T. M.; Leidner, A. K.; Ruane, A. C.; Ferrier, S.; Serbin, S.; Matsuda, H.; Shiklomanov, A. N.; Rosa, I.

    2017-12-01

    Biodiversity and ecosystems services underpin political targets for the conservation of biodiversity; however, previous incarnations of these biodiversity-related targets have not relied on integrated model based projections of possible outcomes based on climate and land use change. Although a few global biodiversity models are available, most biodiversity models lie along a continuum of geography and components of biodiversity. Model-based projections of the future of global biodiversity are critical to support policymakers in the development of informed global conservation targets, but the scientific community lacks a clear strategy for integrating diverse data streams in developing, and evaluating the performance of, such biodiversity models. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a framework for ongoing testing and refinement of model-based projections of biodiversity trends and change, by linking a broad variety of biodiversity models with data streams generated by advances in remote sensing, coupled with new and emerging in-situ observation technologies to inform development of essential biodiversity variables, future global biodiversity targets, and indicators. Our two main objectives are to (1) develop a framework for model testing and refining projections of a broad range of biodiversity models, focusing on global models, through the integration of diverse data streams and (2) identify the realistic outputs that can be developed and determine coupled approaches using remote sensing and new and emerging in-situ observations (e.g., metagenomics) to better inform the next generation of global biodiversity targets.

  14. Visualization and dissemination of global crustal models on virtual globes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Liang-feng; Pan, Xin; Sun, Jian-zhong

    2016-05-01

    Global crustal models, such as CRUST 5.1 and its descendants, are very useful in a broad range of geoscience applications. The current method for representing the existing global crustal models relies heavily on dedicated computer programs to read and work with those models. Therefore, it is not suited to visualize and disseminate global crustal information to non-geological users. This shortcoming is becoming obvious as more and more people from both academic and non-academic institutions are interested in understanding the structure and composition of the crust. There is a pressing need to provide a modern, universal and user-friendly method to represent and visualize the existing global crustal models. In this paper, we present a systematic framework to easily visualize and disseminate the global crustal structure on virtual globes. Based on crustal information exported from the existing global crustal models, we first create a variety of KML-formatted crustal models with different levels of detail (LODs). And then the KML-formatted models can be loaded into a virtual globe for 3D visualization and model dissemination. A Keyhole Markup Language (KML) generator (Crust2KML) is developed to automatically convert crustal information obtained from the CRUST 1.0 model into KML-formatted global crustal models, and a web application (VisualCrust) is designed to disseminate and visualize those models over the Internet. The presented framework and associated implementations can be conveniently exported to other applications to support visualizing and analyzing the Earth's internal structure on both regional and global scales in a 3D virtual-globe environment.

  15. Effects of Telecoupling on Global Vegetation Dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Viña, A.; Liu, J.

    2016-12-01

    With the ever increasing trend in telecoupling processes, such as international trade, all countries around the world are becoming more interdependent. However, the effects of this growing interdependence on vegetation (e.g., shifts in the geographic extent and distribution) remain unknown even though vegetation dynamics are crucially important for food production, carbon sequestration, provision of other ecosystem services, and biodiversity conservation. In this study we evaluate the effects of international trade on the spatio-temporal trajectories of vegetation at national and global scales, using vegetation index imagery collected over more than three decades by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite sensor series together with concurrent national and international data on international trade (and its associated movement of people, goods, services and information). The spatio-temporal trajectories of vegetation are obtained using the scale of fluctuation technique, which is based on the decomposition of the AVHRR image time series to obtain information on its spatial dependence structure over time. Similar to the correlation length, the scale of fluctuation corresponds to the range over which fluctuations in the vegetation index are spatially correlated. Results indicate that global vegetation has changed drastically over the last three decades. These changes are not uniform across space, with hotspots in active trading countries. This study not only has direct implications for understanding global vegetation dynamics, but also sheds important insights on the complexity of human-nature interactions across telecoupled systems.

  16. 25 CFR 162.539 - Must I obtain a WEEL before obtaining a WSR lease?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... AND PERMITS Wind and Solar Resource Leases Wsr Leases § 162.539 Must I obtain a WEEL before obtaining... direct result of energy resource information gathered from a WEEL activity, obtaining a WEEL is not a...

  17. 25 CFR 162.539 - Must I obtain a WEEL before obtaining a WSR lease?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... AND PERMITS Wind and Solar Resource Leases Wsr Leases § 162.539 Must I obtain a WEEL before obtaining... direct result of energy resource information gathered from a WEEL activity, obtaining a WEEL is not a...

  18. Global heating distributions for January 1979 calculated from GLA assimilated and simulated model-based datasets

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schaack, Todd K.; Lenzen, Allen J.; Johnson, Donald R.

    1991-01-01

    This study surveys the large-scale distribution of heating for January 1979 obtained from five sources of information. Through intercomparison of these distributions, with emphasis on satellite-derived information, an investigation is conducted into the global distribution of atmospheric heating and the impact of observations on the diagnostic estimates of heating derived from assimilated datasets. The results indicate a substantial impact of satellite information on diagnostic estimates of heating in regions where there is a scarcity of conventional observations. The addition of satellite data provides information on the atmosphere's temperature and wind structure that is important for estimation of the global distribution of heating and energy exchange.

  19. 77 FR 37430 - BSEE Information Collection Activity: Global Positioning System for MODUs, Extension of a...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-06-21

    ... January 2013, and concerns global positioning systems on Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODUs). After a... any way. The offshore oil and gas industry will use the information to determine the safest and... to do so. Dated: June 14, 2012. Robert W. Middleton, Deputy Chief, Office of Offshore Regulatory...

  20. Global/local stress analysis of composite panels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ransom, Jonathan B.; Knight, Norman F., Jr.

    1989-01-01

    A method for performing a global/local stress analysis is described, and its capabilities are demonstrated. The method employs spline interpolation functions which satisfy the linear plate bending equation to determine displacements and rotations from a global model which are used as boundary conditions for the local model. Then, the local model is analyzed independent of the global model of the structure. This approach can be used to determine local, detailed stress states for specific structural regions using independent, refined local models which exploit information from less-refined global models. The method presented is not restricted to having a priori knowledge of the location of the regions requiring local detailed stress analysis. This approach also reduces the computational effort necessary to obtain the detailed stress state. Criteria for applying the method are developed. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated using a classical stress concentration problem and a graphite-epoxy blade-stiffened panel with a discontinuous stiffener.

  1. Global disparity in the supply of commercial weather and climate information services

    PubMed Central

    Georgeson, Lucien; Maslin, Mark; Poessinouw, Martyn

    2017-01-01

    Information about weather and climate is vital for many areas of decision-making, particularly under conditions of increasing vulnerability and uncertainty related to climate change. We have quantified the global commercial supply of weather and climate information services. Although government data are sometimes freely available, the interpretation and analysis of those data, alongside additional data collection, are required to formulate responses to specific challenges in areas such as health, agriculture, and the built environment. Using transactional data, we analyzed annual spending by private and public organizations on commercial weather and climate information in more than 180 countries by industrial sector, region, per capita, and percentage of GDP (gross domestic product) and against the country’s climate and extreme weather risk. There are major imbalances regarding access to these essential services between different countries based on region and development status. There is also no relationship between the level of climate and weather risks that a country faces and the level of per capita spending on commercial weather and climate information in that country. At the international level, action is being taken to improve access to information services. With a better understanding of the flows of commercial weather and climate information, as explored in this study, it will be possible to tackle these regional and development-related disparities and thus to increase resilience to climate and weather risks. PMID:28560335

  2. Global Seismicity: Three New Maps Compiled with Geographic Information Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lowman, Paul D., Jr.; Montgomery, Brian C.

    1996-01-01

    This paper presents three new maps of global seismicity compiled from NOAA digital data, covering the interval 1963-1998, with three different magnitude ranges (mb): greater than 3.5, less than 3.5, and all detectable magnitudes. A commercially available geographic information system (GIS) was used as the database manager. Epicenter locations were acquired from a CD-ROM supplied by the National Geophysical Data Center. A methodology is presented that can be followed by general users. The implications of the maps are discussed, including the limitations of conventional plate models, and the different tectonic behavior of continental vs. oceanic lithosphere. Several little-known areas of intraplate or passive margin seismicity are also discussed, possibly expressing horizontal compression generated by ridge push.

  3. Feasibility of Obtaining Quantitative 3-Dimensional Information Using Conventional Endoscope: A Pilot Study

    PubMed Central

    Hyun, Jong Jin; Keum, Bora; Seo, Yeon Seok; Kim, Yong Sik; Jeen, Yoon Tae; Lee, Hong Sik; Um, Soon Ho; Kim, Chang Duck; Ryu, Ho Sang; Lim, Jong-Wook; Woo, Dong-Gi; Kim, Young-Joong; Lim, Myo-Taeg

    2012-01-01

    Background/Aims Three-dimensional (3D) imaging is gaining popularity and has been partly adopted in laparoscopic surgery or robotic surgery but has not been applied to gastrointestinal endoscopy. As a first step, we conducted an experiment to evaluate whether images obtained by conventional gastrointestinal endoscopy could be used to acquire quantitative 3D information. Methods Two endoscopes (GIF-H260) were used in a Borrmann type I tumor model made of clay. The endoscopes were calibrated by correcting the barrel distortion and perspective distortion. Obtained images were converted to gray-level image, and the characteristics of the images were obtained by edge detection. Finally, data on 3D parameters were measured by using epipolar geometry, two view geometry, and pinhole camera model. Results The focal length (f) of endoscope at 30 mm was 258.49 pixels. Two endoscopes were fixed at predetermined distance, 12 mm (d12). After matching and calculating disparity (v2-v1), which was 106 pixels, the calculated length between the camera and object (L) was 29.26 mm. The height of the object projected onto the image (h) was then applied to the pinhole camera model, and the result of H (height and width) was 38.21 mm and 41.72 mm, respectively. Measurements were conducted from 2 different locations. The measurement errors ranged from 2.98% to 7.00% with the current Borrmann type I tumor model. Conclusions It was feasible to obtain parameters necessary for 3D analysis and to apply the data to epipolar geometry with conventional gastrointestinal endoscope to calculate the size of an object. PMID:22977798

  4. Towards a Quasi-global precipitation-induced Landslide Detection System using Remote Sensing Information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adler, B.; Hong, Y.; Huffman, G.; Negri, A.; Pando, M.

    2006-05-01

    Landslides and debris flows are one of the most widespread natural hazards on Earth, responsible for thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in property damage per year. Currently, no system exists at either a national or a global scale to monitor or detect rainfall conditions that may trigger landslides. In this study, global landslide susceptibility is mapped using USGS GTOPO30 Digital Elevation, hydrological derivatives (slopes and wetness index etc.) from HYDRO1k data, soil type information downscaled from Digital Soil Map of the World (Sand, Loam, Silt, or Clay etc.), and MODIS land cover/use classification data. These variables are then combined with empirical landslide inventory data, if available, to derive a global landslide susceptibility map at elemental resolution of 1 x 1 km. This map can then be overlain with the driving force, namely rainfall estimates from the TRMM-based Multiple-satellite Precipitation Analysis to identify when areas with significant landslide potential receive heavy rainfall. The relations between rainfall intensity and rainstorm duration are regionally specific and often take the form of a power-law relation. Several empirical landslide-triggering Rainfall Intensity-Duration thresholds are implemented regionally using the 8-year TRMM-based precipitation with or without the global landslide susceptibility map at continuous space and time domain. Finally, the effectiveness of this system is validated by studying several recent deadly landslide/mudslide events. This study aims to build up a prototype quasi-global potential landslide warning system. Spatially-distributed landslide susceptibility maps and regional empirical rainfall intensity-duration thresholds, in combination with real-time rainfall measurements from space and rainfall forecasts from models, will be the basis for this experimental system.

  5. 40 CFR 2.309 - Special rules governing certain information obtained under the Marine Protection, Research and...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... information obtained under the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. 2.309 Section 2.309... Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. (a) Definitions. For the purposes of this section: (1) Act means the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972, 33 U.S.C. 1401 et seq. (2) Permit...

  6. Urban Environmental Education for Global Transformation Initiatives - Integrating Information and Communication Systems for Urban Sustainability in 2050.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chaudhari, K.

    2017-12-01

    The Urban population of developing countries is predicted to rise from one third in 1990 to over 50% by 2025. In 1950 the world's total urban population was 734 million, of whom 448 million were living in developed countries and remaining 286 were in developing region. The total population on earth is predicted to increase by more than one billion people within the next 15 years, reaching 8.5 billion in 2030, and to increase further to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. Looking at the ever increasing urbanization.In 2016, an estimated 54.5 per cent of the world's populations inhabited in urban region. By 2030, urban areas are projected to shelter 60 per cent of people worldwide and one in every three people will live in cities with at least half a million inhabitants.On the basis of these figures and other global trends, it would appear that Africa and Asia will have the highest share of world's urban growth in next 25 years, resulting consideration rise of large number of metropolitan cities and towns. Therefore issues related to urban climate change will be important for socio economic development for urban transformation through environmental sustainability.The information and communication systems plays an important role in achieving the social sustainability through environmental sustainability for urban transformation. This presentation aims to start the Global initiatives on the problem identifications in environment education for global transformation, education for socio-economic and environmental sustainability due to urbanization in 2050 to investigate problems related to social-economic risks and management issues resulting from urbanization to aid mitigation planning in globalized world and to educate scientists and local populations to form a basis for sustainable solutions in environment learning.The presentation aims to assess the potential of information and communication technology for environment education,both within different

  7. Procedures of recruiting, obtaining informed consent, and compensating research participants in Qatar: findings from a qualitative investigation.

    PubMed

    Killawi, Amal; Khidir, Amal; Elnashar, Maha; Abdelrahim, Huda; Hammoud, Maya; Elliott, Heather; Thurston, Michelle; Asad, Humna; Al-Khal, Abdul Latif; Fetters, Michael D

    2014-02-04

    Very few researchers have reported on procedures of recruiting, obtaining informed consent, and compensating participants in health research in the Arabian Gulf Region. Empirical research can inform the debate about whether to adjust these procedures for culturally diverse settings. Our objective was to delineate procedures related to recruiting, obtaining informed consent, and compensating health research participants in the extremely high-density multicultural setting of Qatar. During a multistage mixed methods project, field observations and qualitative interviews were conducted in a general medicine clinic of a major medical center in Qatar. Participants were chosen based on gender, age, literacy, and preferred language, i.e., Arabic, English, Hindi and Urdu. Qualitative analysis identified themes about recruitment, informed consent, compensation, and other research procedures. A total of 153 individuals were approached and 84 enrolled; the latter showed a diverse age range (18 to 75 years); varied language representation: Arabic (n = 24), English (n = 20), Hindi (n = 20), and Urdu (n = 20); and balanced gender distribution: women (n = 43) and men (n = 41). Primary reasons for 30 declinations included concern about interview length and recording. The study achieved a 74% participation rate. Qualitative analytics revealed key themes about hesitation to participate, decisions about participation with family members as well as discussions with them as "incidental research participants", the informed consent process, privacy and gender rules of the interview environment, reactions to member checking and compensation, and motivation for participating. Vulnerability emerged as a recurring issue throughout the process among a minority of participants. This study from Qatar is the first to provide empirical data on recruitment, informed consent, compensation and other research procedures in a general adult population in the Middle East and Arabian Gulf. This

  8. International volunteerism and global responsibility

    PubMed Central

    2017-01-01

    To review the current status of volunteerism in the field of urology as a global responsibility, a PubMed search was done with keywords: international volunteer, urology, global health, international resident education. Furthermore, internet search using Google and Bing as search engines for the same key words was done. Websites of multinational urological organizations was researched for available information. Expert opinions of key individuals in the arena were obtained. There is a paucity of published literature as to the efforts and outcomes of volunteerism in Urology; most of the information is related to the fistula repair outcomes in medical literature. There is credible information on the impact on resident training in the field of dentistry, general surgery, orthopedics and plastic surgery. The desire to volunteer is demonstrated in a survey of urologists, the delivery of volunteer missions is fragmented, the outcomes or impact of these efforts is less well documented. There is a need to create pathways to harness the desire of urologists to volunteer. Simultaneously, the effort to establish ethical standards and guidelines for surgical care in LMIC countries by visiting doctors is important. There is a tremendous opportunity for resident education in this arena, as demonstrated by the ACGME approved path in general surgery. PMID:28540233

  9. Global geodesy using GPS without fiducial sites

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Heflin, Michael; Bertiger, Willy; Blewitt, Geoff; Freedman, Adam; Hurst, Ken; Lichten, Steve; Lindqwister, Ulf; Vigue, Yvonne; Webb, Frank; Yunck, Tom

    1992-01-01

    Baseline lengths and geocentric radii have been determined from GPS data without the use of fiducial sites. Data from the first GPS experiment for the IERS and Geodynamics (GIG '91) have been analyzed with a no-fiducial strategy. A baseline length daily repeatability of 2 mm + 4 parts per billion was obtained for baselines in the Northern Hemisphere. Comparison of baseline lengths from GPS and the global VLBI solution GLB659 (Caprette et al. 1990) show rms agreement of 2.1 parts per billion. The geocentric radius mean daily repeatability for all sites was 15 cm. Comparison of geocentric radii from GPS and SV5 (Murray et al. 1990) show rms agreement of 3.8 cm. Given n globally distributed stations, the n(n - 1)/2 baseline lengths and n geocentric radii uniquely define a rigid closed polyhedron with a well-defined center of mass. Geodetic information can be obtained by examining the structure of the polyhedron and its change with time.

  10. Local–global overlap in diversity informs mechanisms of bacterial biogeography

    PubMed Central

    Livermore, Joshua A; Jones, Stuart E

    2015-01-01

    Spatial variation in environmental conditions and barriers to organism movement are thought to be important factors for generating endemic species, thus enhancing global diversity. Recent microbial ecology research suggested that the entire diversity of bacteria in the global oceans could be recovered at a single site, thus inferring a lack of bacterial endemism. We argue this is not the case in the global ocean, but might be in other bacterial ecosystems with higher dispersal rates and lower global diversity, like the human gut. We quantified the degree to which local and global bacterial diversity overlap in a diverse set of ecosystems. Upon comparison of observed local–global diversity overlap with predictions from a neutral biogeography model, human-associated microbiomes (gut, skin, mouth) behaved much closer to neutral expectations whereas soil, lake and marine communities deviated strongly from the neutral expectations. This is likely a result of differences in dispersal rate among ‘patches', global diversity of these systems, and local densities of bacterial cells. It appears that overlap of local and global bacterial diversity is surprisingly large (but likely not one-hundred percent), and most importantly this overlap appears to be predictable based upon traditional biogeographic parameters like community size, global diversity, inter-patch environmental heterogeneity and patch connectivity. PMID:25848869

  11. Managing Identifiers for Elements of Provenance of the Third National Climate Assessment in the Global Change Information System (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tilmes, C.; Aulenbach, S.; Duggan, B.; Goldstein, J.

    2013-12-01

    A Federal Advisory Committee (The "National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee" or NCADAC) has overseen the development of a draft climate report that after extensive review will be considered by the Federal Government in the Third National Climate Assessment (NCA). This comprehensive report (1) Integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the Program and discusses the scientific uncertainties associated with such findings; (2) Analyzes the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity; and (3) Analyzes current trends in global change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100 years. The U.S. Global Change Program (USGCRP), composed of the 13 federal agencies most concerned with global change, is building a Global Change Information System (GCIS) that will ultimately organize access to all of the research, data, and information about global change from across the system. A prototype of the system has been constructed that captures and presents all of the elements of provenance of the NCA through a coherent data model and friendly front end web site. This work will focus on the globally unique and persistent identifiers used to reference and organize those items. These include externally referenced items, such as DOIs used by scientific journal publishers for research articles or by agencies as dataset identifiers, as well as our own internal approach to identifiers, our overall data model and experiences managing persistent identifiers within the GCIS.

  12. A Modeling Approach to Enhance Animal-Obtained Oceanographic Data Geo- Position

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tremblay, Y.; Robinson, P.; Weise, M. J.; Costa, D. P.

    2006-12-01

    Diving animals are increasingly being used as platforms to collect oceanographic data such as CTD profiles. Animal borne sensors provide an amazing amount of data that have to be spatially referenced. Because of technical limitations geo-position of these data mostly comes from the interpolation of locations obtained through the ARGOS positioning system. This system lacks spatio-temporal resolution compared to the Global Positioning System (GPS) and therefore, the positions of these oceanographic data are not well defined. A consequence of this is that many data collected in coastal regions are discarded, because many casts' records fell on land. Using modeling techniques, we propose a method to deal with this problem. The method is rather intuitive, and instead of deleting unreasonable or low-quality locations, it uses them by taking into account their lack of precision as a source of information. In a similar way, coastlines are used as sources of information, because marine animals do not travel over land. The method was evaluated using simultaneously obtained tracks with the Argos and GPS system. The tracks obtained from this method are considerably enhanced and allow a more accurate geo-reference of oceanographic data. In addition, the method provides a way to evaluate spatial errors for each cast that is not otherwise possible with classical filtering methods.

  13. Biodiversity informatics: challenges and opportunities for applying biodiversity information to management and conservation

    Treesearch

    James S. Kagan

    2006-01-01

    Researchers, land managers, and the public currently often are unable to obtain useful biodiversity information because the subject represents such a large component of biology and ecology, and systems to compile and organize this information do not exist. Information on vascular plant taxonomy, as addressed by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and key...

  14. Influence of Global Shapes on Children's Coding of Local Geometric Information in Small-Scale Spaces

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chiang, Noelle C.

    2013-01-01

    This research uses enclosed whole shapes, rather than visual form fragments, to demonstrate that children's use of local geometric information is influenced by global shapes in small-scale spaces. Three- to six-year-old children and adults participated in two experiments with a table-top task. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with a…

  15. 76 FR 13226 - Meeting of the Department of Justice Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative Federal...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2011-03-10

    ... . DATES: The meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 20, 2011, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. ADDRESSES: The meeting will take place at the Embassy Suites Washington, DC--Convention Center Hotel, 900 Tenth... priorities. The GAC will guide and monitor the development of the Global information sharing concept. It will...

  16. The Information Society in Europe: Work and Life in an Age of Globalization. Critical Media Studies: Institutions, Politics, and Culture.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ducatel, Ken, Ed.; Webster, Juliet, Ed.; Herrmann, Werner, Ed.

    This book takes stock of the existing socioeconomic knowledge about a range of the core social issues of the information society. Chapter 1, "Information Infrastructures or Societies?" (Ken Ducatel, Juliet Webster, Werner Herrmann), is an introduction. Part 1, "Space, Economy, and the Global Information Society" looks at the processes of economic…

  17. Obtaining and providing health information in the community pharmacy setting.

    PubMed

    Iwanowicz, Susan L; Marciniak, Macary Weck; Zeolla, Mario M

    2006-06-15

    Community pharmacists are a valuable information resource for patients and other healthcare providers. The advent of new information technology, most notably the Internet, coupled with the rapid availability of new healthcare information, has fueled this demand. Pharmacy students must receive training that enables them to meet this need. Community advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) provide an excellent opportunity for students to develop and master drug information skills in a real-world setting. Preceptors must ensure that students are familiar with drug information resources and can efficiently identify the most useful resource for a given topic. Students must also be trained to assess the quality of resources and use this information to effectively respond to drug or health information inquiries. This article will discuss key aspects of providing drug information in the community pharmacy setting and can serve as a guide and resource for APPE preceptors.

  18. Obtaining and Providing Health Information in the Community Pharmacy Setting

    PubMed Central

    Iwanowicz, Susan L.; Marciniak, Macary Weck; Zeolla, Mario M.

    2006-01-01

    Community pharmacists are a valuable information resource for patients and other healthcare providers. The advent of new information technology, most notably the Internet, coupled with the rapid availability of new healthcare information, has fueled this demand. Pharmacy students must receive training that enables them to meet this need. Community advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) provide an excellent opportunity for students to develop and master drug information skills in a real-world setting. Preceptors must ensure that students are familiar with drug information resources and can efficiently identify the most useful resource for a given topic. Students must also be trained to assess the quality of resources and use this information to effectively respond to drug or health information inquiries. This article will discuss key aspects of providing drug information in the community pharmacy setting and can serve as a guide and resource for APPE preceptors. PMID:17136178

  19. An Experimental Global Monitoring System for Rainfall-triggered Landslides using Satellite Remote Sensing Information

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hong, Yang; Adler, Robert F.; Huffman, George J.

    2006-01-01

    Landslides triggered by rainfall can possibly be foreseen in real time by jointly using rainfall intensity-duration thresholds and information related to land surface susceptibility. However, no system exists at either a national or a global scale to monitor or detect rainfall conditions that may trigger landslides due to the lack of extensive ground-based observing network in many parts of the world. Recent advances in satellite remote sensing technology and increasing availability of high-resolution geospatial products around the globe have provided an unprecedented opportunity for such a study. In this paper, a framework for developing an experimental real-time monitoring system to detect rainfall-triggered landslides is proposed by combining two necessary components: surface landslide susceptibility and a real-time space-based rainfall analysis system (http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.aov). First, a global landslide susceptibility map is derived from a combination of semi-static global surface characteristics (digital elevation topography, slope, soil types, soil texture, and land cover classification etc.) using a GIs weighted linear combination approach. Second, an adjusted empirical relationship between rainfall intensity-duration and landslide occurrence is used to assess landslide risks at areas with high susceptibility. A major outcome of this work is the availability of a first-time global assessment of landslide risk, which is only possible because of the utilization of global satellite remote sensing products. This experimental system can be updated continuously due to the availability of new satellite remote sensing products. This proposed system, if pursued through wide interdisciplinary efforts as recommended herein, bears the promise to grow many local landslide hazard analyses into a global decision-making support system for landslide disaster preparedness and risk mitigation activities across the world.

  20. Data Information for Global Change Studies: NASA's Distributed Active Archive Centers and Cooperating Data Centers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2000-01-01

    The Earth Observing System (EOS) is an integral part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Earth Science Enterprise (ESE). ESE is a long-term global change research program designed to improve our understanding of the Earth's interrelated processes involving the atmosphere, oceans, land surfaces, and polar regions. Data from EOS instruments and other Earth science measurement systems are useful in understanding the causes and processes of global climate change and the consequences of human activities. The EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) provides a structure for data management and user services for products derived from EOS satellite instruments and other NASA Earth science data. Within the EOSDIS framework, the Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) have been established to provide expertise in one or more Earth science disciplines. The DAACs and cooperating data centers provide data and information services to support the global change research community. Much of the development of the DAACs has been in anticipation of the enormous amount of data expected from EOS instruments to be launched within the next two decades. Terra, the EOS flagship launched in December 1999, is the first of a series of EOS satellites to carry several instruments with multispectral capabilities. Some data products from these instruments are now available from several of the DAACs. These and other data products can be ordered through the EOS Data Gateway (EDG) and DAAC-specific online ordering systems.

  1. A discussion for integrating INSPIRE with volunteered geographic information (VGI) and the vision for a global spatial-based platform

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Demetriou, Demetris; Campagna, Michele; Racetin, Ivana; Konecny, Milan

    2017-09-01

    INSPIRE is the EU's authoritative Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) in which each Member State provides access to their spatial data across a wide spectrum of data themes to support policy making. In contrast, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is one type of user-generated geographic information where volunteers use the web and mobile devices to create, assemble and disseminate spatial information. There are similarities and differences between SDIs and VGI initiatives, as well as advantages and disadvantages. Thus, the integration of these two data sources will enhance what is offered to end users to facilitate decision makers and the wider community regarding solving complex spatial problems, managing emergency situations and getting useful information for peoples' daily activities. Although some efforts towards this direction have been arisen, several key issues need to be considered and resolved. Further to this integration, the vision is the development of a global integrated GIS platform, which extends the capabilities of a typical data-hub by embedding on-line spatial and non-spatial applications, to deliver both static and dynamic outputs to support planning and decision making. In this context, this paper discusses the challenges of integrating INSPIRE with VGI and outlines a generic framework towards creating a global integrated web-based GIS platform. The tremendous high speed evolution of the Web and Geospatial technologies suggest that this "super" global Geo-system is not far away.

  2. ThinkHazard!: an open-source, global tool for understanding hazard information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fraser, Stuart; Jongman, Brenden; Simpson, Alanna; Nunez, Ariel; Deparday, Vivien; Saito, Keiko; Murnane, Richard; Balog, Simone

    2016-04-01

    Rapid and simple access to added-value natural hazard and disaster risk information is a key issue for various stakeholders of the development and disaster risk management (DRM) domains. Accessing available data often requires specialist knowledge of heterogeneous data, which are often highly technical and can be difficult for non-specialists in DRM to find and exploit. Thus, availability, accessibility and processing of these information sources are crucial issues, and an important reason why many development projects suffer significant impacts from natural hazards. The World Bank's Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is currently developing a new open-source tool to address this knowledge gap: ThinkHazard! The main aim of the ThinkHazard! project is to develop an analytical tool dedicated to facilitating improvements in knowledge and understanding of natural hazards among non-specialists in DRM. It also aims at providing users with relevant guidance and information on handling the threats posed by the natural hazards present in a chosen location. Furthermore, all aspects of this tool will be open and transparent, in order to give users enough information to understand its operational principles. In this presentation, we will explain the technical approach behind the tool, which translates state-of-the-art probabilistic natural hazard data into understandable hazard classifications and practical recommendations. We will also demonstrate the functionality of the tool, and discuss limitations from a scientific as well as an operational perspective.

  3. Communications satellites in the national and global health care information infrastructure: their role, impact, and issues

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zuzek, J. E.; Bhasin, K. B.

    1996-01-01

    Health care services delivered from a distance, known collectively as telemedicine, are being increasingly demonstrated on various transmission media. Telemedicine activities have included diagnosis by a doctor at a remote location, emergency and disaster medical assistance, medical education, and medical informatics. The ability of communications satellites to offer communication channels and bandwidth on demand, connectivity to mobile, remote and under served regions, and global access will afford them a critical role for telemedicine applications within the National and Global Information Infrastructure (NII/GII). The importance that communications satellites will have in telemedicine applications within the NII/GII the differences in requirements for NII vs. GII, the major issues such as interoperability, confidentiality, quality, availability, and costs, and preliminary conclusions for future usability based on the review of several recent trails at national and global levels are presented.

  4. Global Estimates of Fine Particulate Matter Using a Combined Geophysical-Statistical Method with Information from Satellites, Models, and Monitors

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Van Donkelaar, Aaron; Martin, Randall V.; Brauer, Michael; Hsu, N. Christina; Kahn, Ralph A.; Levy, Robert C.; Lyapustin, Alexei; Sayer, Andrew M.; Winker, David M.

    2016-01-01

    We estimated global fine particulate matter (PM(sub 2.5)) concentrations using information from satellite-, simulation- and monitor-based sources by applying a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) to global geophysically-based satellite-derived PM(sub 2.5) estimates. Aerosol optical depth from multiple satellite products (MISR, MODIS Dark Target, MODIS and SeaWiFS Deep Blue, and MODIS MAIAC) was combined with simulation (GEOS-Chem) based upon their relative uncertainties as determined using ground-based sun photometer (AERONET) observations for 1998-2014. The GWR predictors included simulated aerosol composition and land use information. The resultant PM(sub 2.5) estimates were highly consistent (R(sup 2) equals 0.81) with out-of-sample cross-validated PM(sub 2.5) concentrations from monitors. The global population-weighted annual average PM(sub 2.5) concentrations were 3-fold higher than the 10 micrograms per cubic meter WHO guideline, driven by exposures in Asian and African regions. Estimates in regions with high contributions from mineral dust were associated with higher uncertainty, resulting from both sparse ground-based monitoring, and challenging conditions for retrieval and simulation. This approach demonstrates that the addition of even sparse ground-based measurements to more globally continuous PM(sub 2.5) data sources can yield valuable improvements to PM(sub 2.5) characterization on a global scale.

  5. Global Oncology; Harvard Global Health Catalyst summit lecture notes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ngwa, Wilfred; Nguyen, Paul

    2017-08-01

    The material presented in this book is at the cutting-edge of global oncology and provides highly illuminating examples, addresses frequently asked questions, and provides information and a reference for future work in global oncology care, research, education, and outreach.

  6. The Construct of Media and Information Literacy in Singapore Education System: Global Trends and Local Policies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lin, Tzu-Bin; Mokhtar, Intan Azura; Wang, Li-Yi

    2015-01-01

    This paper discusses the representation of information literacy and media literacy in the Singapore education discourse as part of its twenty-first century competencies framework. Through examining the conceptual definitions, purposes/aims, and means of these two significant twenty-first century competencies in the global context and the Singapore…

  7. The politics of agenda setting at the global level: key informant interviews regarding the International Labour Organization Decent Work Agenda.

    PubMed

    Di Ruggiero, Erica; Cohen, Joanna E; Cole, Donald C

    2014-07-01

    Global labour markets continue to undergo significant transformations resulting from socio-political instability combined with rises in structural inequality, employment insecurity, and poor working conditions. Confronted by these challenges, global institutions are providing policy guidance to protect and promote the health and well-being of workers. This article provides an account of how the International Labour Organization's Decent Work Agenda contributes to the work policy agendas of the World Health Organization and the World Bank. This qualitative study involved semi-structured interviews with representatives from three global institutions--the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization and the World Bank. Of the 25 key informants invited to participate, 16 took part in the study. Analysis for key themes was followed by interpretation using selected agenda setting theories. Interviews indicated that through the Decent Work Agenda, the International Labour Organization is shaping the global policy narrative about work among UN agencies, and that the pursuit of decent work and the Agenda were perceived as important goals with the potential to promote just policies. The Agenda was closely linked to the World Health Organization's conception of health as a human right. However, decent work was consistently identified by World Bank informants as ILO terminology in contrast to terms such as job creation and job access. The limited evidence base and its conceptual nature were offered as partial explanations for why the Agenda has yet to fully influence other global institutions. Catalytic events such as the economic crisis were identified as creating the enabling conditions to influence global work policy agendas. Our evidence aids our understanding of how an issue like decent work enters and stays on the policy agendas of global institutions, using the Decent Work Agenda as an illustrative example. Catalytic events and policy

  8. The politics of agenda setting at the global level: key informant interviews regarding the International Labour Organization Decent Work Agenda

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background Global labour markets continue to undergo significant transformations resulting from socio-political instability combined with rises in structural inequality, employment insecurity, and poor working conditions. Confronted by these challenges, global institutions are providing policy guidance to protect and promote the health and well-being of workers. This article provides an account of how the International Labour Organization’s Decent Work Agenda contributes to the work policy agendas of the World Health Organization and the World Bank. Methods This qualitative study involved semi-structured interviews with representatives from three global institutions – the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Health Organization and the World Bank. Of the 25 key informants invited to participate, 16 took part in the study. Analysis for key themes was followed by interpretation using selected agenda setting theories. Results Interviews indicated that through the Decent Work Agenda, the International Labour Organization is shaping the global policy narrative about work among UN agencies, and that the pursuit of decent work and the Agenda were perceived as important goals with the potential to promote just policies. The Agenda was closely linked to the World Health Organization’s conception of health as a human right. However, decent work was consistently identified by World Bank informants as ILO terminology in contrast to terms such as job creation and job access. The limited evidence base and its conceptual nature were offered as partial explanations for why the Agenda has yet to fully influence other global institutions. Catalytic events such as the economic crisis were identified as creating the enabling conditions to influence global work policy agendas. Conclusions Our evidence aids our understanding of how an issue like decent work enters and stays on the policy agendas of global institutions, using the Decent Work Agenda as an illustrative

  9. Greater future global warming inferred from Earth's recent energy budget.

    PubMed

    Brown, Patrick T; Caldeira, Ken

    2017-12-06

    Climate models provide the principal means of projecting global warming over the remainder of the twenty-first century but modelled estimates of warming vary by a factor of approximately two even under the same radiative forcing scenarios. Across-model relationships between currently observable attributes of the climate system and the simulated magnitude of future warming have the potential to inform projections. Here we show that robust across-model relationships exist between the global spatial patterns of several fundamental attributes of Earth's top-of-atmosphere energy budget and the magnitude of projected global warming. When we constrain the model projections with observations, we obtain greater means and narrower ranges of future global warming across the major radiative forcing scenarios, in general. In particular, we find that the observationally informed warming projection for the end of the twenty-first century for the steepest radiative forcing scenario is about 15 per cent warmer (+0.5 degrees Celsius) with a reduction of about a third in the two-standard-deviation spread (-1.2 degrees Celsius) relative to the raw model projections reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Our results suggest that achieving any given global temperature stabilization target will require steeper greenhouse gas emissions reductions than previously calculated.

  10. Developing a Global Mindset: Learning of Global Leaders

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cseh, Maria; Davis, Elizabeth B.; Khilji, Shaista E.

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the requirements of leading in a global environment as perceived by the leaders participating in this study as well as the way these leaders learn and develop their global mindset. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology informed by social constructivism included…

  11. Act local, think global: how the Malawi experience of scaling up antiretroviral treatment has informed global policy.

    PubMed

    Harries, Anthony D; Ford, Nathan; Jahn, Andreas; Schouten, Erik J; Libamba, Edwin; Chimbwandira, Frank; Maher, Dermot

    2016-09-06

    The scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Malawi was based on a public health approach adapted to its resource-poor setting, with principles and practices borrowed from the successful tuberculosis control framework. From 2004 to 2015, the number of new patients started on ART increased from about 3000 to over 820,000. Despite being a small country, Malawi has made a significant contribution to the 15 million people globally on ART and has also contributed policy and service delivery innovations that have supported international guidelines and scale up in other countries. The first set of global guidelines for scaling up ART released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002 focused on providing clinical guidance. In Malawi, the ART guidelines adopted from the outset a more operational and programmatic approach with recommendations on health systems and services that were needed to deliver HIV treatment to affected populations. Seven years after the start of national scale-up, Malawi launched a new strategy offering all HIV-infected pregnant women lifelong ART regardless of the CD4-cell count, named Option B+. This strategy was subsequently incorporated into a WHO programmatic guide in 2012 and WHO ART guidelines in 2013, and has since then been adopted by the majority of countries worldwide. In conclusion, the Malawi experience of ART scale-up has become a blueprint for a public health response to HIV and has informed international efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

  12. An Information NEXUS: The NASA Global Hawk Link Module

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sullivan, D. V.

    2012-01-01

    The Link Module described in this paper was first developed for the NASA Global Hawk Pacific Mission (GloPAC), four flights of 30 hour duration, supporting the Aura Validation Experiment (AVE). Its second use was during the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) experiment, a NASA Earth Science field experiment to better understand how tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes. In these missions, the Link module negotiated all communication over the high bandwidth Ku satellite link, archived al the science data from onboard experiments in a spatially enable database, routed command and control of the instruments from the Global Hawk Operations Center, and retransmitted select data sets directly to experimenters control and analysis systems. The availability of aggregated information from collections of sensors, and remote control capabilities, in real-time, is revolutionizing the way Airborne Science is being conducted. Also described is the next generation Link Module now being designed and tested to support the NASA Earth Venture missions, the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission, and Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX) mission. Advanced data fusion technologies being developed will further advance the Scientific productivity, flexibility and robustness of these systems. Historically, the Link module evolved from the instrument and communication interface controller used by NASA's Pathfinder and Pathfinder plus solar powered UAS's in the late 1990's. It later was expanded for use in the AIRDAS four channel scanner flown on the NASA Altus UAS, and then again to a module in the AMS twelve channel multispectral scanner flying on the NASA (Predator-b) Ikhana UAS. The current system is the next step in the evolution, a multi board system packaged in a Curtiss Wright MIL-spec, flight qualified enclosure.

  13. The Effects of the Project Champion's Leadership Style on Global Information Technology User Acceptance and Use

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ekiko, Mbong C.

    2014-01-01

    The research problem was the lack of knowledge about the effect of leadership style of the project champion on global information technology (IT) project outcomes, resulting in a high failure rate of IT projects accompanied by significant waste of resources. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to evaluate the relationship…

  14. Medical Information Exchange: Pattern of Global Mobile Messenger Usage among Otolaryngologists.

    PubMed

    Siegal, Gil; Dagan, Elad; Wolf, Michael; Duvdevani, Shay; Alon, Eran E

    2016-11-01

    Information technology has revolutionized health care. However, the development of dedicated mobile health software has been lagging, leading to the use of general mobile applications to fill in the void. The use of such applications has several legal, ethical, and regulatory implications. We examined the experience and practices governing the usage of a global mobile messenger application (WhatsApp) for mobile health purposes in a national cohort of practicing otolaryngologists in Israel, a known early adaptor information technology society. Cross-sectional data were collected from practicing otolaryngologists and otolaryngology residents via self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was composed of a demographic section, a section surveying the practices of mobile application use, mobile health application use, and knowledge regarding institutional policies governing the transmission of medical data. The sample included 22 otolaryngology residents and 47 practicing otolaryngologists. Of the physicians, 83% worked in academic centers, and 88% and 40% of the physicians who worked in a hospital setting or a community clinic used WhatsApp for medical use, respectively. Working with residents increased the medical usage of WhatsApp from 50% to 91% (P = .006). Finally, 72% were unfamiliar with any institutional policy regarding the transfer of medical information by personal smartphones. Mobile health is becoming an integral part of modern medical systems, improving accessibility, efficiency, and possibly quality of medical care. The need to incorporate personal mobile devices in the overall information technology standards, guidelines, and regulation is becoming more acute. Nonetheless, practices must be properly instituted to prevent unwanted consequences. © American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Foundation 2016.

  15. Informing policy to protect coastal coral reefs: insight from a global review of reducing agricultural pollution to coastal ecosystems.

    PubMed

    Kroon, Frederieke J; Schaffelke, Britta; Bartley, Rebecca

    2014-08-15

    The continuing degradation of coral reefs has serious consequences for the provision of ecosystem goods and services to local and regional communities. While climate change is considered the most serious risk to coral reefs, agricultural pollution threatens approximately 25% of the total global reef area with further increases in sediment and nutrient fluxes projected over the next 50 years. Here, we aim to inform coral reef management using insights learned from management examples that were successful in reducing agricultural pollution to coastal ecosystems. We identify multiple examples reporting reduced fluxes of sediment and nutrients at end-of-river, and associated declines in nutrient concentrations and algal biomass in receiving coastal waters. Based on the insights obtained, we recommend that future protection of coral reef ecosystems demands policy focused on desired ecosystem outcomes, targeted regulatory approaches, up-scaling of watershed management, and long-term maintenance of scientifically robust monitoring programs linked with adaptive management. Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Global information infrastructure.

    PubMed

    Lindberg, D A

    1994-01-01

    The High Performance Computing and Communications Program (HPCC) is a multiagency federal initiative under the leadership of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, established by the High Performance Computing Act of 1991. It has been assigned a critical role in supporting the international collaboration essential to science and to health care. Goals of the HPCC are to extend USA leadership in high performance computing and networking technologies; to improve technology transfer for economic competitiveness, education, and national security; and to provide a key part of the foundation for the National Information Infrastructure. The first component of the National Institutes of Health to participate in the HPCC, the National Library of Medicine (NLM), recently issued a solicitation for proposals to address a range of issues, from privacy to 'testbed' networks, 'virtual reality,' and more. These efforts will build upon the NLM's extensive outreach program and other initiatives, including the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), MEDLARS, and Grateful Med. New Internet search tools are emerging, such as Gopher and 'Knowbots'. Medicine will succeed in developing future intelligent agents to assist in utilizing computer networks. Our ability to serve patients is so often restricted by lack of information and knowledge at the time and place of medical decision-making. The new technologies, properly employed, will also greatly enhance our ability to serve the patient.

  17. Assessing the Primary Data Hosted by the Spanish Node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

    PubMed Central

    Otegui, Javier; Ariño, Arturo H.; Encinas, María A.; Pando, Francisco

    2013-01-01

    In order to effectively understand and cope with the current ‘biodiversity crisis’, having large-enough sets of qualified data is necessary. Information facilitators such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) are ensuring increasing availability of primary biodiversity records by linking data collections spread over several institutions that have agreed to publish their data in a common access schema. We have assessed the primary records that one such publisher, the Spanish node of GBIF (GBIF.ES), hosts on behalf of a number of institutions, considered to be a highly representative sample of the total mass of available data for a country in order to know the quantity and quality of the information made available. Our results may provide an indication of the overall fitness-for-use in these data. We have found a number of patterns in the availability and accrual of data that seem to arise naturally from the digitization processes. Knowing these patterns and features may help deciding when and how these data can be used. Broadly, the error level seems low. The available data may be of capital importance for the development of biodiversity research, both locally and globally. However, wide swaths of records lack data elements such as georeferencing or taxonomical levels. Although the remaining information is ample and fit for many uses, improving the completeness of the records would likely increase the usability span for these data. PMID:23372828

  18. Essential elements of online information networks on invasive alien species

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Simpson, A.; Sellers, E.; Grosse, A.; Xie, Y.

    2006-01-01

    In order to be effective, information must be placed in the proper context and organized in a manner that is logical and (preferably) standardized. Recently, invasive alien species (IAS) scientists have begun to create online networks to share their information concerning IAS prevention and control. At a special networking session at the Beijing International Symposium on Biological Invasions, an online Eastern Asia-North American IAS Information Network (EA-NA Network) was proposed. To prepare for the development of this network, and to provide models for other regional collaborations, we compare four examples of global, regional, and national online IAS information networks: the Global Invasive Species Information Network, the Invasives Information Network of the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network, the Chinese Species Information System, and the Invasive Species Information Node of the US National Biological Information Infrastructure. We conclude that IAS networks require a common goal, dedicated leaders, effective communication, and broad endorsement, in order to obtain sustainable, long-term funding and long-term stability. They need to start small, use the experience of other networks, partner with others, and showcase benefits. Global integration and synergy among invasive species networks will succeed with contributions from both the top-down and the bottom-up. ?? 2006 Springer.

  19. Methodological considerations for global analysis of cellular FLIM/FRET measurements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adbul Rahim, Nur Aida; Pelet, Serge; Kamm, Roger D.; So, Peter T. C.

    2012-02-01

    Global algorithms can improve the analysis of fluorescence energy transfer (FRET) measurement based on fluorescence lifetime microscopy. However, global analysis of FRET data is also susceptible to experimental artifacts. This work examines several common artifacts and suggests remedial experimental protocols. Specifically, we examined the accuracy of different methods for instrument response extraction and propose an adaptive method based on the mean lifetime of fluorescent proteins. We further examined the effects of image segmentation and a priori constraints on the accuracy of lifetime extraction. Methods to test the applicability of global analysis on cellular data are proposed and demonstrated. The accuracy of global fitting degrades with lower photon count. By systematically tracking the effect of the minimum photon count on lifetime and FRET prefactors when carrying out global analysis, we demonstrate a correction procedure to recover the correct FRET parameters, allowing us to obtain protein interaction information even in dim cellular regions with photon counts as low as 100 per decay curve.

  20. The effects of global awareness on the spreading of epidemics in multiplex networks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zang, Haijuan

    2018-02-01

    It is increasingly recognized that understanding the complex interplay patterns between epidemic spreading and human behavioral is a key component of successful infection control efforts. In particular, individuals can obtain the information about epidemics and respond by altering their behaviors, which can affect the spreading dynamics as well. Besides, because the existence of herd-like behaviors, individuals are very easy to be influenced by the global awareness information. Here, in this paper, we propose a global awareness controlled spreading model (GACS) to explore the interplay between the coupled dynamical processes. Using the global microscopic Markov chain approach, we obtain the analytical results for the epidemic thresholds, which shows a high accuracy by comparison with lots of Monte Carlo simulations. Furthermore, considering other classical models used to describe the coupled dynamical processes, including the local awareness controlled contagion spreading (LACS) model, Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible-Unaware-Aware-Unaware (SIS-UAU) model and the single layer occasion, we make a detailed comparisons between the GACS with them. Although the comparisons and results depend on the parameters each model has, the GACS model always shows a strong restrain effects on epidemic spreading process. Our results give us a better understanding of the coupled dynamical processes and highlights the importance of considering the spreading of global awareness in the control of epidemics.

  1. The Global Invasive Species Information Network: contributing to GEO Task BI-07-01b

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Graham, J.; Morisette, J. T.; Simpson, A.

    2009-12-01

    Invasive alien species (IAS) threaten biodiversity and exert a tremendous cost on society for IAS prevention and eradication. They endanger natural ecosystem functioning and seriously impact biodiversity and agricultural production. The task definition for the GEO task BI-07-01b: Invasive Species Monitoring System is to characterize, monitor, and predict changes in the distribution of invasive species. This includes characterizing the current requirements and capacity for invasive species monitoring and developing strategies for implementing cross-search functionality among existing online invasive species information systems from around the globe. The Task is being coordinated by members of the Global Invasive Species Information Network (GISIN) and their partners. Information on GISIN and a prototype of the network is available at www.gisin.org. This talk will report on the current status of GISIN and review how researchers can either contribute to or utilize data from this network.

  2. Medical Comics as Tools to Aid in Obtaining Informed Consent for Stroke Care.

    PubMed

    Furuno, Yuichi; Sasajima, Hiroyasu

    2015-07-01

    Informed consent has now become common in medical practice. However, a gap still exists between doctors and patients in the understanding of clinical conditions. We designed medical comics about "subarachnoid hemorrhage" and "intracerebral hemorrhage" to help doctors obtain informed consent intuitively, quickly, and comprehensively.Between September 2010 and September 2012, we carried out a questionnaire survey about medical comics with the families of patients who had suffered an intracerebral or subarachnoid hemorrhage. The questionnaire consisted of 6 questions inquiring about their mental condition, reading time, usefulness of the comics in understanding brain function and anatomy, pathogenesis, doctor's explanation, and applicability of these comics.The results showed that 93.8% responders would prefer or strongly prefer the use of comics in other medical situations. When considering the level of understanding of brain function and anatomy, pathology of disease, and doctor's explanation, 81.3%, 75.0%, and 68.8% of responders, respectively, rated these comics as very useful or useful.We think that the visual and narrative illustrations in medical comics would be more helpful for patients than a lengthy explanation by a doctor. Most of the responders hoped that medical comics would be applied to other medical cases. Thus, medical comics could work as a new communication tool between doctors and patients.

  3. Self-organization of globally continuous and locally distributed information representation.

    PubMed

    Wada, Koji; Kurata, Koji; Okada, Masato

    2004-01-01

    A number of findings suggest that the preferences of neighboring neurons in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex of macaque monkeys tend to be similar. However, a recent study reports convincingly that the preferences of neighboring neurons actually differ. These findings seem contradictory. To explain this conflict, we propose a new view of information representation in the IT cortex. This view takes into account sparse and local neuronal excitation. Since the excitation is sparse, information regarding visual objects seems to be encoded in a distributed manner. The local excitation of neurons coincides with the classical notion of a column structure. Our model consists of input layer and output layer. The main difference from conventional models is that the output layer has local and random intra-layer connections. In this paper, we adopt two rings embedded in three-dimensional space as an input signal space, and examine how resultant information representation depends on the distance between two rings that is denoted as D. We show that there exists critical value for the distance Dc. When D > Dc the output layer becomes able to form the column structure, this model can obtain the distributed representation within the column. While the output layer acquires the conventional information representation observed in the V1 cortex when D < Dc. Moreover, we consider the origin of the difference between information representation of the V1 cortex and that of the IT cortex. Our finding suggests that the difference in the information representations between the V1 and the IT cortices could be caused by difference between the input space structures.

  4. Health Information Obtained From the Internet and Changes in Medical Decision Making: Questionnaire Development and Cross-Sectional Survey.

    PubMed

    Chen, Yen-Yuan; Li, Chia-Ming; Liang, Jyh-Chong; Tsai, Chin-Chung

    2018-02-12

    medical decision making (P=.01), consulting with others (P<.001), and promoting self-efficacy on deliberating the online health information (P<.001) based on the online health information they obtained. Present health care professionals have a responsibility to acknowledge that patients' medical decision making may be changed based on additional online health information. Health care professionals should assist patients' medical decision making by initiating as much dialogue with patients as possible, providing credible and convincing health information to patients, and guiding patients where to look for accurate, comprehensive, and understandable online health information. By doing so, patients will avoid becoming overwhelmed with extraneous and often conflicting health information. Educational interventions to promote health information seekers' ability to identify, locate, obtain, read, understand, evaluate, and effectively use online health information are highly encouraged. ©Yen-Yuan Chen, Chia-Ming Li, Jyh-Chong Liang, Chin-Chung Tsai. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 12.02.2018.

  5. Global warming's five Germanys: A typology of Germans' views on climate change and patterns of media use and information.

    PubMed

    Metag, Julia; Füchslin, Tobias; Schäfer, Mike S

    2017-05-01

    People's attitudes toward climate change differ, and these differences may correspond to distinct patterns of media use and information seeking. However, studies extending analyses of attitude types and their specific media diets to countries beyond the United States are lacking. We use a secondary analysis of survey data from Germany to identify attitudes toward climate change among the German public and specify those segments of the population based on their media use and information seeking. Similar to the Global Warming's Six Americas study, we find distinct attitudes (Global Warming's Five Germanys) that differ in climate change-related perceptions as well as in media use and communicative behavior. These findings can help tailor communication campaigns regarding climate change to specific audiences.

  6. Greater future global warming inferred from Earth’s recent energy budget

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brown, Patrick T.; Caldeira, Ken

    2017-12-01

    Climate models provide the principal means of projecting global warming over the remainder of the twenty-first century but modelled estimates of warming vary by a factor of approximately two even under the same radiative forcing scenarios. Across-model relationships between currently observable attributes of the climate system and the simulated magnitude of future warming have the potential to inform projections. Here we show that robust across-model relationships exist between the global spatial patterns of several fundamental attributes of Earth’s top-of-atmosphere energy budget and the magnitude of projected global warming. When we constrain the model projections with observations, we obtain greater means and narrower ranges of future global warming across the major radiative forcing scenarios, in general. In particular, we find that the observationally informed warming projection for the end of the twenty-first century for the steepest radiative forcing scenario is about 15 per cent warmer (+0.5 degrees Celsius) with a reduction of about a third in the two-standard-deviation spread (-1.2 degrees Celsius) relative to the raw model projections reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Our results suggest that achieving any given global temperature stabilization target will require steeper greenhouse gas emissions reductions than previously calculated.

  7. Information Seeking about Global Climate Change among Adolescents: The Role of Risk Perceptions, Efficacy Beliefs and Parental Influences

    PubMed Central

    Mead, Erin; Roser-Renouf, Connie; Rimal, Rajiv N.; Flora, June A.; Maibach, Edward W.; Leiserowitz, Anthony

    2012-01-01

    Global climate change is likely to have significant impacts on public health. Effective communication is critical to informing public decision making and behavior to mitigate climate change. An effective method of audience segmentation, the risk perception attitude (RPA) framework has been previously tested with other health behaviors and classifies people into 4 groups on the basis of their perceptions of risk and beliefs about personal efficacy. The 4 groups – indifference (low risk, weak efficacy), proactive (low risk, strong efficacy), avoidance (high risk, weak efficacy), and responsive (high risk, strong efficacy) – are hypothesized to differ in their self-protective behaviors and in their motivations to seek information. In this paper, we extend the RPA framework in two ways. First, we use it at the household level to determine whether parental classifications into the 4 groups are associated with their teenage children’s classification into the same 4 groups. Second, we predict adolescent information-seeking behaviors on the basis of their and their parents’ membership in the 4 RPA groups. Results (N = 523 parent-adolescent pairs) indicated that parental membership in the 4 RPA groups was significantly associated with children’s membership in the same 4 groups. Furthermore, the RPA framework was a significant predictor of adolescent information-seeking: those in the responsive and avoidance groups sought more information on climate change than the indifference group. Family communication on global warming was positively associated with adolescents’ information-seeking. Implications for interventions are discussed. PMID:22866024

  8. Volpe Center Acoustics Facility time-space-position-information system differential global positioning system user's guide, version 1.2

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2000-07-01

    This document is a users guide for the VolpeCenter AcousticsFacilitys(VCAF)Time-Space-Position-Information : (TSPI) System. The VCAF TSPI system is a differential global positioning system (dGPS) which may be utilized : for highly accurate vehi...

  9. Using global unique identifiers to link autism collections.

    PubMed

    Johnson, Stephen B; Whitney, Glen; McAuliffe, Matthew; Wang, Hailong; McCreedy, Evan; Rozenblit, Leon; Evans, Clark C

    2010-01-01

    To propose a centralized method for generating global unique identifiers to link collections of research data and specimens. The work is a collaboration between the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative and the National Database for Autism Research. The system is implemented as a web service: an investigator inputs identifying information about a participant into a client application and sends encrypted information to a server application, which returns a generated global unique identifier. The authors evaluated the system using a volume test of one million simulated individuals and a field test on 2000 families (over 8000 individual participants) in an autism study. Inverse probability of hash codes; rate of false identity of two individuals; rate of false split of single individual; percentage of subjects for which identifying information could be collected; percentage of hash codes generated successfully. Large-volume simulation generated no false splits or false identity. Field testing in the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative Simplex Collection produced identifiers for 96% of children in the study and 77% of parents. On average, four out of five hash codes per subject were generated perfectly (only one perfect hash is required for subsequent matching). The system must achieve balance among the competing goals of distinguishing individuals, collecting accurate information for matching, and protecting confidentiality. Considerable effort is required to obtain approval from institutional review boards, obtain consent from participants, and to achieve compliance from sites during a multicenter study. Generic unique identifiers have the potential to link collections of research data, augment the amount and types of data available for individuals, support detection of overlap between collections, and facilitate replication of research findings.

  10. Sequence information signal processor for local and global string comparisons

    DOEpatents

    Peterson, John C.; Chow, Edward T.; Waterman, Michael S.; Hunkapillar, Timothy J.

    1997-01-01

    A sequence information signal processing integrated circuit chip designed to perform high speed calculation of a dynamic programming algorithm based upon the algorithm defined by Waterman and Smith. The signal processing chip of the present invention is designed to be a building block of a linear systolic array, the performance of which can be increased by connecting additional sequence information signal processing chips to the array. The chip provides a high speed, low cost linear array processor that can locate highly similar global sequences or segments thereof such as contiguous subsequences from two different DNA or protein sequences. The chip is implemented in a preferred embodiment using CMOS VLSI technology to provide the equivalent of about 400,000 transistors or 100,000 gates. Each chip provides 16 processing elements, and is designed to provide 16 bit, two's compliment operation for maximum score precision of between -32,768 and +32,767. It is designed to provide a comparison between sequences as long as 4,194,304 elements without external software and between sequences of unlimited numbers of elements with the aid of external software. Each sequence can be assigned different deletion and insertion weight functions. Each processor is provided with a similarity measure device which is independently variable. Thus, each processor can contribute to maximum value score calculation using a different similarity measure.

  11. Spatial interpolation of solar global radiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lussana, C.; Uboldi, F.; Antoniazzi, C.

    2010-09-01

    Solar global radiation is defined as the radiant flux incident onto an area element of the terrestrial surface. Its direct knowledge plays a crucial role in many applications, from agrometeorology to environmental meteorology. The ARPA Lombardia's meteorological network includes about one hundred of pyranometers, mostly distributed in the southern part of the Alps and in the centre of the Po Plain. A statistical interpolation method based on an implementation of the Optimal Interpolation is applied to the hourly average of the solar global radiation observations measured by the ARPA Lombardia's network. The background field is obtained using SMARTS (The Simple Model of the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer of Sunshine, Gueymard, 2001). The model is initialised by assuming clear sky conditions and it takes into account the solar position and orography related effects (shade and reflection). The interpolation of pyranometric observations introduces in the analysis fields information about cloud presence and influence. A particular effort is devoted to prevent observations affected by large errors of different kinds (representativity errors, systematic errors, gross errors) from entering the analysis procedure. The inclusion of direct cloud information from satellite observations is also planned.

  12. How the public uses social media wechat to obtain health information in china: a survey study.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Xingting; Wen, Dong; Liang, Jun; Lei, Jianbo

    2017-07-05

    On average, 570 million users, 93% in China's first-tier cities, log on to WeChat every day. WeChat has become the most widely and frequently used social media in China, and has been profoundly integrated into the daily life of many Chinese people. A variety of health-related information may be found on WeChat. The objective of this study is to understand how the general public views the impact of the rapidly emerging social media on health information acquisition. A self-administered questionnaire was designed, distributed, collected, and analyzed utilizing the online survey tool Sojump. WeChat was adopted to randomly release the questionnaires using convenience sampling and collect the results after a certain amount of time. (1) A total of 1636 questionnaires (WeChat customers) were collected from 32 provinces. (2) The primary means by which respondents received health education was via the Internet (71.79%). Baidu and WeChat were the top 2 search tools utilized (90.71% and 28.30%, respectively). Only 12.41% of respondents were satisfied with their online health information search. (3) Almost all had seen (98.35%) or read (97.68%) health information; however, only 14.43% believed that WeChat health information could improve health. Nearly one-third frequently received and read health information through WeChat. WeChat was selected (63.26%) as the most expected means for obtaining health information. (4) The major concerns regarding health information through WeChat included the following: excessively homogeneous information, the lack of a guarantee of professionalism, and the presence of advertisements. (5) Finally, the general public was most interested in individualized and interactive health information by managing clinicians, they will highly benefit from using social media rather than Internet search tools. The current state of health acquisition proves worrisome. The public has a high chance to access health information via WeChat. The growing popularity of

  13. Inter-laboratory evaluation of the EUROFORGEN Global ancestry-informative SNP panel by massively parallel sequencing using the Ion PGM™.

    PubMed

    Eduardoff, M; Gross, T E; Santos, C; de la Puente, M; Ballard, D; Strobl, C; Børsting, C; Morling, N; Fusco, L; Hussing, C; Egyed, B; Souto, L; Uacyisrael, J; Syndercombe Court, D; Carracedo, Á; Lareu, M V; Schneider, P M; Parson, W; Phillips, C; Parson, W; Phillips, C

    2016-07-01

    The EUROFORGEN Global ancestry-informative SNP (AIM-SNPs) panel is a forensic multiplex of 128 markers designed to differentiate an individual's ancestry from amongst the five continental population groups of Africa, Europe, East Asia, Native America, and Oceania. A custom multiplex of AmpliSeq™ PCR primers was designed for the Global AIM-SNPs to perform massively parallel sequencing using the Ion PGM™ system. This study assessed individual SNP genotyping precision using the Ion PGM™, the forensic sensitivity of the multiplex using dilution series, degraded DNA plus simple mixtures, and the ancestry differentiation power of the final panel design, which required substitution of three original ancestry-informative SNPs with alternatives. Fourteen populations that had not been previously analyzed were genotyped using the custom multiplex and these studies allowed assessment of genotyping performance by comparison of data across five laboratories. Results indicate a low level of genotyping error can still occur from sequence misalignment caused by homopolymeric tracts close to the target SNP, despite careful scrutiny of candidate SNPs at the design stage. Such sequence misalignment required the exclusion of component SNP rs2080161 from the Global AIM-SNPs panel. However, the overall genotyping precision and sensitivity of this custom multiplex indicates the Ion PGM™ assay for the Global AIM-SNPs is highly suitable for forensic ancestry analysis with massively parallel sequencing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. [Sex differences in relationship between creativity and hemispheric information processing in global and local levels].

    PubMed

    Razumnikova, O M; Vol'f, N V

    2012-01-01

    Sex differences in creativity related global-local hemispheric selective processing were examined by hierarchical letter presenting in conditions of their perception and comparison. Fifty-six right-handed males and 68 females (aged 17-22 years) participated in the experiments. Originality-imagery was assessed by a computer-based Torrance 'Incomplete Figures' test software. Verbal creativity was valued by original sentence using of three nouns from remote semantic categories. The results show that irrespectively of the sex factor and the type of creative thinking, its originality is provided by high speed of right-hemispheric processes of information selection on the global level and delay in the interhemispheric communication. Relationships between originality of ideas and hemispheric attentional characteristics are presented mostly in men while verbal creative problem solving, and in women while figurative original thinking. Originality of verbal activity in men is more associated with success of selective processes in the left hemisphere, but in women--with selective functions of both hemispheres. Figurative thinking in men is less related to hemispheric characteristics of attention compared with women. Increase of figurative originality in women is accompanied acceleration of processes of selection of the information in the right hemisphere, and also higher efficiency of local attention as well as speeds ofglobal processing in the left hemisphere.

  15. Medical Comics as Tools to Aid in Obtaining Informed Consent for Stroke Care

    PubMed Central

    Furuno, Yuichi; Sasajima, Hiroyasu

    2015-01-01

    Abstract Informed consent has now become common in medical practice. However, a gap still exists between doctors and patients in the understanding of clinical conditions. We designed medical comics about “subarachnoid hemorrhage” and “intracerebral hemorrhage” to help doctors obtain informed consent intuitively, quickly, and comprehensively. Between September 2010 and September 2012, we carried out a questionnaire survey about medical comics with the families of patients who had suffered an intracerebral or subarachnoid hemorrhage. The questionnaire consisted of 6 questions inquiring about their mental condition, reading time, usefulness of the comics in understanding brain function and anatomy, pathogenesis, doctor's explanation, and applicability of these comics. The results showed that 93.8% responders would prefer or strongly prefer the use of comics in other medical situations. When considering the level of understanding of brain function and anatomy, pathology of disease, and doctor's explanation, 81.3%, 75.0%, and 68.8% of responders, respectively, rated these comics as very useful or useful. We think that the visual and narrative illustrations in medical comics would be more helpful for patients than a lengthy explanation by a doctor. Most of the responders hoped that medical comics would be applied to other medical cases. Thus, medical comics could work as a new communication tool between doctors and patients. PMID:26131830

  16. Mapping global surface water inundation dynamics using synergistic information from SMAP, AMSR2 and Landsat

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Du, J.; Kimball, J. S.; Galantowicz, J. F.; Kim, S.; Chan, S.; Reichle, R. H.; Jones, L. A.; Watts, J. D.

    2017-12-01

    A method to monitor global land surface water (fw) inundation dynamics was developed by exploiting the enhanced fw sensitivity of L-band (1.4 GHz) passive microwave observations from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. The L-band fw (fwLBand) retrievals were derived using SMAP H-polarization brightness temperature (Tb) observations and predefined L-band reference microwave emissivities for water and land endmembers. Potential soil moisture and vegetation contributions to the microwave signal were represented from overlapping higher frequency Tb observations from AMSR2. The resulting fwLBand global record has high temporal sampling (1-3 days) and 36-km spatial resolution. The fwLBand annual averages corresponded favourably (R=0.84, p<0.001) with a 250-m resolution static global water map (MOD44W) aggregated at the same spatial scale, while capturing significant inundation variations worldwide. The monthly fwLBand averages also showed seasonal inundation changes consistent with river discharge records within six major US river basins. An uncertainty analysis indicated generally reliable fwLBand performance for major land cover areas and under low to moderate vegetation cover, but with lower accuracy for detecting water bodies covered by dense vegetation. Finer resolution (30-m) fwLBand results were obtained for three sub-regions in North America using an empirical downscaling approach and ancillary global Water Occurrence Dataset (WOD) derived from the historical Landsat record. The resulting 30-m fwLBand retrievals showed favourable classification accuracy for water (commission error 31.84%; omission error 28.08%) and land (commission error 0.82%; omission error 0.99%) and seasonal wet and dry periods when compared to independent water maps derived from Landsat-8 imagery. The new fwLBand algorithms and continuing SMAP and AMSR2 operations provide for near real-time, multi-scale monitoring of global surface water inundation dynamics, potentially

  17. A discrete choice experiment to obtain a tariff for valuing informal care situations measured with the CarerQol instrument.

    PubMed

    Hoefman, Renske J; van Exel, Job; Rose, John M; van de Wetering, E J; Brouwer, Werner B F

    2014-01-01

    Economic evaluations adopting a societal perspective need to include informal care whenever relevant. However, in practice, informal care is often neglected, because there are few validated instruments to measure and value informal care for inclusion in economic evaluations. The CarerQol, which is such an instrument, measures the impact of informal care on 7 important burden dimensions (CarerQol-7D) and values this in terms of general quality of life (CarerQol-VAS). The objective of the study was to calculate utility scores based on relative utility weights for the CarerQol-7D. These tariffs will facilitate inclusion of informal care in economic evaluations. The CarerQol-7D tariff was derived with a discrete choice experiment conducted as an Internet survey among the general adult population in the Netherlands (N = 992). The choice set contained 2 unlabeled alternatives described in terms of the 7 CarerQol-7D dimensions (level range: "no,"some," and "a lot"). An efficient experimental design with priors obtained from a pilot study (N = 104) was used. Data were analyzed with a panel mixed multinomial parameter model including main and interaction effects of the attributes. The utility attached to informal care situations was significantly higher when this situation was more attractive in terms of fewer problems and more fulfillment or support. The interaction term between the CarerQol-7D dimensions physical health and mental health problems also significantly explained this utility. The tariff was constructed by adding up the relative utility weights per category of all CarerQol-7D dimensions and the interaction term. We obtained a tariff providing standard utility scores for caring situations described with the CarerQol-7D. This facilitates the inclusion of informal care in economic evaluations.

  18. Success of University Student Volunteers in Obtaining Consent for Reviewing Private Health Information for Emergency Research.

    PubMed

    Kramer, Adam I; Stephenson, Elizabeth; Betel, Adam; Crudden, Johanna; Boutis, Kathy

    2017-01-01

    This study aimed to determine the success of university student volunteers in obtaining consent from parents to allow review of their child's personal health information (PHI) for emergency research screening. This study also aimed to examine the variables associated with successful consent. This was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted at a pediatric emergency department (ED). University students, who functioned as delegates of the health information custodian, approached parents for consent. Of 2,506 parents, 1,852 (73.9%) provided consent to allow review of their child's PHI for research screening. Variables associated with successful consent were high (≥12 months) versus low (<12 months) volunteer experience (OR = 2.0), research related (vs. unrelated) to the child's chief complaint (OR = 2.0), child treated regularly by specialists at the study institution (OR = 1.7), and ED presentation mid-week vs. weekend (OR = 1.7) and morning vs. evening presentation (OR = 1.4). When approached by a university student volunteer, about 25% of parents declined to have their child's PHI reviewed for research screening. This model of obtaining consent may put some emergency research at risk for selection bias. Variables that increase the odds of successful consent can be considered in program design to improve the effectiveness of this model.

  19. Integrating remote sensing, geographic information systems and global positioning system techniques with hydrological modeling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thakur, Jay Krishna; Singh, Sudhir Kumar; Ekanthalu, Vicky Shettigondahalli

    2017-07-01

    Integration of remote sensing (RS), geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS) are emerging research areas in the field of groundwater hydrology, resource management, environmental monitoring and during emergency response. Recent advancements in the fields of RS, GIS, GPS and higher level of computation will help in providing and handling a range of data simultaneously in a time- and cost-efficient manner. This review paper deals with hydrological modeling, uses of remote sensing and GIS in hydrological modeling, models of integrations and their need and in last the conclusion. After dealing with these issues conceptually and technically, we can develop better methods and novel approaches to handle large data sets and in a better way to communicate information related with rapidly decreasing societal resources, i.e. groundwater.

  20. Spatiotemporal Dynamics and Fitness Analysis of Global Oil Market: Based on Complex Network

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Minggang; Fang, Guochang; Shao, Shuai

    2016-01-01

    We study the overall topological structure properties of global oil trade network, such as degree, strength, cumulative distribution, information entropy and weight clustering. The structural evolution of the network is investigated as well. We find the global oil import and export networks do not show typical scale-free distribution, but display disassortative property. Furthermore, based on the monthly data of oil import values during 2005.01–2014.12, by applying random matrix theory, we investigate the complex spatiotemporal dynamic from the country level and fitness evolution of the global oil market from a demand-side analysis. Abundant information about global oil market can be obtained from deviating eigenvalues. The result shows that the oil market has experienced five different periods, which is consistent with the evolution of country clusters. Moreover, we find the changing trend of fitness function agrees with that of gross domestic product (GDP), and suggest that the fitness evolution of oil market can be predicted by forecasting GDP values. To conclude, some suggestions are provided according to the results. PMID:27706147

  1. Globalization and American Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Merriman, William; Nicoletti, Augustine

    2008-01-01

    Globalization is a potent force in today's world. The welfare of the United States is tied to the welfare of other countries by economics, the environment, politics, culture, information, and technology. This paper identifies the implications of globalization for education, presents applications of important aspects of globalization that teachers…

  2. Towards a Global Service Registry for the World-Wide LHC Computing Grid

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Field, Laurence; Alandes Pradillo, Maria; Di Girolamo, Alessandro

    2014-06-01

    The World-Wide LHC Computing Grid encompasses a set of heterogeneous information systems; from central portals such as the Open Science Grid's Information Management System and the Grid Operations Centre Database, to the WLCG information system, where the information sources are the Grid services themselves. Providing a consistent view of the information, which involves synchronising all these informations systems, is a challenging activity that has lead the LHC virtual organisations to create their own configuration databases. This experience, whereby each virtual organisation's configuration database interfaces with multiple information systems, has resulted in the duplication of effort, especially relating to the use of manual checks for the handling of inconsistencies. The Global Service Registry aims to address this issue by providing a centralised service that aggregates information from multiple information systems. It shows both information on registered resources (i.e. what should be there) and available resources (i.e. what is there). The main purpose is to simplify the synchronisation of the virtual organisation's own configuration databases, which are used for job submission and data management, through the provision of a single interface for obtaining all the information. By centralising the information, automated consistency and validation checks can be performed to improve the overall quality of information provided. Although internally the GLUE 2.0 information model is used for the purpose of integration, the Global Service Registry in not dependent on any particular information model for ingestion or dissemination. The intention is to allow the virtual organisation's configuration databases to be decoupled from the underlying information systems in a transparent way and hence simplify any possible future migration due to the evolution of those systems. This paper presents the Global Service Registry architecture, its advantages compared to the

  3. Trends in Interactive Information Systems for Earth Observation from Space: Towards a Global, Digital Image Library Service.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kingwell, Jeff

    1996-01-01

    Data management systems for earth science information gathered from space are being affected by two related trends: (1) a move from ad hoc systems established for particular projects to a longer lasting national and global infrastructure; and (2) an emphasis on efficient service delivery in an era of diminishing resources for national space…

  4. 19 CFR 356.11 - Procedures for obtaining access to privileged information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-04-01

    ... information. 356.11 Section 356.11 Customs Duties INTERNATIONAL TRADE ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE... Government. Where, in the course of a panel review, the panel has reviewed privileged information under a Protective Order for Privileged Information, and the issue to which such information pertains is relevant to...

  5. 19 CFR 356.11 - Procedures for obtaining access to privileged information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-04-01

    ... information. 356.11 Section 356.11 Customs Duties INTERNATIONAL TRADE ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE... Government. Where, in the course of a panel review, the panel has reviewed privileged information under a Protective Order for Privileged Information, and the issue to which such information pertains is relevant to...

  6. 19 CFR 356.11 - Procedures for obtaining access to privileged information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... information. 356.11 Section 356.11 Customs Duties INTERNATIONAL TRADE ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE... Government. Where, in the course of a panel review, the panel has reviewed privileged information under a Protective Order for Privileged Information, and the issue to which such information pertains is relevant to...

  7. From Global to Local and Vice Versa: On the Importance of the `Globalization' Agenda in Continental Groundwater Research and Policy-Making

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Filimonau, Viachaslau; Barth, Johannes A. C.

    2016-09-01

    Groundwater is one of the most important environmental resources and its use continuously rises globally for industrial, agricultural, and drinking water supply purposes. Because of its importance, more knowledge about the volume of usable groundwater is necessary to satisfy the global demand. Due to the challenges in quantifying the volume of available global groundwater, studies which aim to assess its magnitude are limited in number. They are further restricted in scope and depth of analysis as, in most cases, they do not explain how the estimates of global groundwater resources have been obtained, what methods have been used to generate the figures and what levels of uncertainty exist. This article reviews the estimates of global groundwater resources. It finds that the level of uncertainty attached to existing numbers often exceeds 100 % and strives to establish the reasons for discrepancy. The outcome of this study outlines the need for a new agenda in water research with a more pronounced focus on groundwater. This new research agenda should aim at enhancing the quality and quantity of data provision on local and regional groundwater stocks and flows. This knowledge enhancement can serve as a basis to improve policy-making on groundwater resources globally. Research-informed policies will facilitate more effective groundwater management practices to ensure a more rapid progress of the global water sector towards the goal of sustainability.

  8. From Global to Local and Vice Versa: On the Importance of the 'Globalization' Agenda in Continental Groundwater Research and Policy-Making.

    PubMed

    Filimonau, Viachaslau; Barth, Johannes A C

    2016-09-01

    Groundwater is one of the most important environmental resources and its use continuously rises globally for industrial, agricultural, and drinking water supply purposes. Because of its importance, more knowledge about the volume of usable groundwater is necessary to satisfy the global demand. Due to the challenges in quantifying the volume of available global groundwater, studies which aim to assess its magnitude are limited in number. They are further restricted in scope and depth of analysis as, in most cases, they do not explain how the estimates of global groundwater resources have been obtained, what methods have been used to generate the figures and what levels of uncertainty exist. This article reviews the estimates of global groundwater resources. It finds that the level of uncertainty attached to existing numbers often exceeds 100 % and strives to establish the reasons for discrepancy. The outcome of this study outlines the need for a new agenda in water research with a more pronounced focus on groundwater. This new research agenda should aim at enhancing the quality and quantity of data provision on local and regional groundwater stocks and flows. This knowledge enhancement can serve as a basis to improve policy-making on groundwater resources globally. Research-informed policies will facilitate more effective groundwater management practices to ensure a more rapid progress of the global water sector towards the goal of sustainability.

  9. Use of the Internet by patients and their families to obtain genetics-related information.

    PubMed

    Taylor, M R; Alman, A; Manchester, D K

    2001-08-01

    To characterize use of the Internet by patients and their families referred to general genetics clinics. We developed a survey to assess Internet use among patients visiting urban and rural clinics in Colorado and Wyoming. One hundred eighty-nine surveys were distributed to patients and their family members visiting outpatient general genetics clinics in spring 2000. The 8-page anonymous survey instrument asked about use of the Internet to obtain genetics-related information (GRI). All participants were asked whether a physician or health professional had referred them to the Internet for GRI. Subjects who had previously used the Internet to search for GRI were asked to rate whether they considered the GRI they encountered to be accurate, inaccurate, easy to understand, confusing, or trustworthy. One hundred fifty-seven surveys (83%) were returned (52% urban; 48% rural). Ninety (60%) of 149 respondents were at the clinic for a new-patient visit, and 59 (40%) were follow-up visits. All respondents were older than 17 years; 141 (91%) of 155 respondents were the patient's parent or guardian. Seventy-three (47%) of 155 respondents had searched the Internet for GRI prior to their clinic visit. The patients and families themselves initiated the majority of such efforts; only 8 (5%) of 148 respondents had been referred to a site on the World Wide Web by a physician. Interestingly, 136 (92%) of 147 respondents indicated that they would be likely to visit a Web site that was recommended by a geneticist. The most compelling reasons for searching the Internet for GRI were to get information in layperson's terms (60/131 [46%]); to get information about treatment (16/131 [12%]); and to get information about genetic research (16/131 [12%]). Among respondents who reported visiting GRI Web sites, 24 (41%) of 58 agreed that information was confusing or difficult to understand, 35 (53%) of 66 agreed that information was accurate and trustworthy, and 44 (77%) of 57 agreed that using

  10. Brussels and the Global Information Society.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Flesch, Colette

    1997-01-01

    New communication and information technology is transforming the structure and law governing information markets and the economic, social, cultural, and political patterns of societies. This article discusses the effects of information technology (telecommuting, job growth in rural areas, distance education) and the role of the European Commission…

  11. Human Capital Response to Globalization: Education and Information Technology in India

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Shastry, Gauri Kartini

    2012-01-01

    Recent studies suggest that globalization increases inequality, by increasing skilled wage premiums in developing countries. This effect may be mitigated, however, if human capital responds to global opportunities. I study how the impact of globalization varies across Indian districts with different costs of learning English. Linguistic diversity…

  12. Global Patch Matching

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, X.; Hu, K.; Ling, X.; Zhang, Y.; Lu, Z.; Zhou, G.

    2017-09-01

    This paper introduces a novel global patch matching method that focuses on how to remove fronto-parallel bias and obtain continuous smooth surfaces with assuming that the scenes covered by stereos are piecewise continuous. Firstly, simple linear iterative cluster method (SLIC) is used to segment the base image into a series of patches. Then, a global energy function, which consists of a data term and a smoothness term, is built on the patches. The data term is the second-order Taylor expansion of correlation coefficients, and the smoothness term is built by combing connectivity constraints and the coplanarity constraints are combined to construct the smoothness term. Finally, the global energy function can be built by combining the data term and the smoothness term. We rewrite the global energy function in a quadratic matrix function, and use least square methods to obtain the optimal solution. Experiments on Adirondack stereo and Motorcycle stereo of Middlebury benchmark show that the proposed method can remove fronto-parallel bias effectively, and produce continuous smooth surfaces.

  13. Global/local stress analysis of composite structures. M.S. Thesis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ransom, Jonathan B.

    1989-01-01

    A method for performing a global/local stress analysis is described and its capabilities are demonstrated. The method employs spline interpolation functions which satisfy the linear plate bending equation to determine displacements and rotations from a global model which are used as boundary conditions for the local model. Then, the local model is analyzed independent of the global model of the structure. This approach can be used to determine local, detailed stress states for specific structural regions using independent, refined local models which exploit information from less-refined global models. The method presented is not restricted to having a priori knowledge of the location of the regions requiring local detailed stress analysis. This approach also reduces the computational effort necessary to obtain the detailed stress state. Criteria for applying the method are developed. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated using a classical stress concentration problem and a graphite-epoxy blade-stiffened panel with a discontinuous stiffener.

  14. Evaluation of the quality of information on the Internet available to patients undergoing cervical spine surgery.

    PubMed

    Weil, Alexander G; Bojanowski, Michel W; Jamart, Jacques; Gustin, Thierry; Lévêque, Marc

    2014-01-01

    To evaluate the quality of information available on the Internet to patients with a cervical pathology undergoing elective cervical spine surgery. Six key words ("cervical discectomy," "cervical foraminotomy," "cervical fusion," "cervical disc replacement," "cervical arthroplasty," "cervical artificial disc") were entered into two different search engines (Google, Yahoo!). For each key word, the first 50 websites were evaluated for accessibility, comprehensibility, and website quality using the DISCERN tool, transparency and honesty criteria, and an accuracy and exhaustivity scale. Of 5,098,500 evaluable websites, 600 were visited; 97 (16%) of these websites were evaluated for quality and comprehensiveness. Overall, 3% of sites obtained an excellent global quality score, 7% obtained a good score, 25% obtained an above average score, 15% obtained an average score, 37% obtained a poor score, and 13% obtained a very poor score. High-quality websites were affiliated with a professional society (P = 0.021), had bibliographical references (P = 0.030), and had a recent update within 6 months (r = 0.277, P < 0.001). No correlation between global quality score and other variables was observed. This study shows that the search for medical information on the Internet is time-consuming and often disappointing. The Internet is a potentially misleading source of information. Surgeons and professional societies must use the Internet as an ally in providing optimal information to patients. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  15. Role of commercial aircraft in global monitoring systems.

    PubMed

    Steinberg, R

    1973-04-27

    The role of commercial aircraft in monitoring meteorological parameters and atmospheric constituents has been limited in the former case and virtually nonexistent in the latter. I have tried to point out that this situation can and should be changed now. The new family of wide-bodied jets such as the 747, DC-10, and L-1011 aircraft can be used to supply important global atmospheric and tropical meteorological data for which there is a pressing need. While scientists are not in total agreement on the magnitude of the effect of particulates and gases on the atmosphere, there is almost unanimous concurrence that we are severely limited in information, and that global baseline concentrations must be established for particulates and gases in the troposphere and lower stratosphere as soon as possible. Also, more synoptic meteorological information from the tropical troposphere is highly desirable. In the final analysis, commercial aircraft may offer the most inexpensive way to monitor our atmosphere in the near future. Much of the instrumentation technology is here and the rest is certainly within our grasp. The fact of the matter is that there are now over 220 Boeing 747's and Douglas DC-10's in service, flying an average of 10 hours a day. Long-range flights, such as those from Tokyo to Anchorage to London in the Northern Hemisphere and from Hawaii to Pago Pago to Sydney in the Southern Hemisphere, are commonplace. These aircraft are equipped with inertial navigation systems and central air data computers coupled to advanced data storage systems which can readily be interrogated by satellite. This means that there is now a large amount of snyoptic weather information which can be obtained with a minimum of effort and cost. Likewise, a start at obtaining measurements of atmospheric constituents on a global basis can be made now. All we need to do is make the effort.

  16. FP7 GLOWASIS - A new collaborative project aimed at pre-validation of a GMES Global Water Scarcity Information Service

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Westerhoff, R.; Levizzani, V.; Pappenberger, F.; de Roo, A.; Lange, R. D.; Wagner, W.; Bierkens, M. F.; Ceran, M.; Weerts, A.; Sinclair, S.; Miguez-Macho, G.; Langius, E.; Glowasis Team

    2011-12-01

    The main objective of the project GLOWASIS is to pre-validate a GMES Global Service for Water Scarcity Information. It will be set up as a one-stop-shop portal for water scarcity information, in which focus is put on: - monitoring data from satellites and in-situ sensors; - improving forecasting models with improved monitoring data; - linking statistical water data in forecasting; - promotion of GMES Services and European satellites. In European and global pilots on the scale of river catchments it combines hydrological models with in-situ and satellite derived water cycle information, as well as government ruled statistical water demand data. By linking water demand and supply in three pilot studies with existing platforms (European Drought Observatory and PCR-GLOBWB) for medium- and long-term forecasting in Europe, Africa and worldwide, GLOWASIS' information contributes both in near-real time reporting for emerging drought events as well as in provision of climate change time series. By combining complex water cycle variables, governmental issues and economic relations with respect to water demand, GLOWASIS will aim for the needed streamlining of the wide variety of important water scarcity information. More awareness for the complexity of the water scarcity problem will be created and additional capabilities of satellite-measured water cycle parameters can be promoted. The service uses data from GMES Core Services LMCS Geoland2 and Marine Core Service MyOcean (land use, soil moisture, soil sealing, sea level), in-situ data from GEWEX' initiatives (i.e. International Soil Moisture network), agricultural and industrial water use and demand (statistical - AQUASTAT, SEEAW and modelled) and additional water-cycle information from existing global satellite services. In-depth interviews with a.o. EEA and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology are taking place. GLOWASIS will aim for an open source and open-standard information portal on water scarcity and use of modern

  17. A Method for Obtaining High Frequency, Global, IR-Based Convective Cloud Tops for Studies of the TTL

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pfister, Leonhard; Ueyama, Rei; Jensen, Eric; Schoeberl, Mark

    2017-01-01

    Models of varying complexity that simulate water vapor and clouds in the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) show that including convection directly is essential to properly simulating the water vapor and cloud distribution. In boreal winter, for example, simulations without convection yield a water vapor distribution that is too uniform with longitude, as well as minimal cloud distributions. Two things are important for convective simulations. First, it is important to get the convective cloud top potential temperature correctly, since unrealistically high values (reaching above the cold point tropopause too frequently) will cause excessive hydration of the stratosphere. Second, one must capture the time variation as well, since hydration by convection depends on the local relative humidity (temperature), which has substantial variation on synoptic time scales in the TTL. This paper describes a method for obtaining high frequency (3-hourly) global convective cloud top distributions which can be used in trajectory models. The method uses rainfall thresholds, standard IR brightness temperatures, meteorological temperature analyses, and physically realistic and documented corrections IR brightness temperature corrections to derive cloud top altitudes and potential temperatures. The cloud top altitudes compare well with combined CLOUDSAT and CALIPSO data, both in time-averaged overall vertical and horizontal distributions and in individual cases (correlations of .65-.7). An important finding is that there is significant uncertainty (nearly .5 km) in evaluating the statistical distribution of convective cloud tops even using lidar. Deep convection whose tops are in regions of high relative humidity (such as much of the TTL), will cause clouds to form above the actual convection. It is often difficult to distinguish these clouds from the actual convective cloud due to the uncertainties of evaluating ice water content from lidar measurements. Comparison with models show that

  18. Data policy and availability supporting global change research, development, and decision-making: An information perspective

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Carroll, Bonnie C.; Jack, Robert F.; Cotter, Gladys A.

    1990-01-01

    An explosion of information has created a crisis for today's information age. It has to be determined how to use the best available information sources, tools, and technology. To do this it is necessary to have leadership at the interagency level to promote a coherent information policy. It is also important to find ways to educate the users of information regarding the tools available to them. Advances in technology resulted in efforts to shift from Disciplinary and Mission-oriented Systems to Decision Support Systems and Personalized Information Systems. One such effort is being made by the Interagency Working Group on Data Management for Global Change (IAWGDMGC). Five federal agencies - the Department of Commerce (DOC), Department of Energy (DOE), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Library of Medicine (NLM), and Department of Defense (DOD) - have an on-going cooperative information management group, CENDI (Commerce, Energy, NASA, NLM, and Defense Information), that is meeting the challenge of coordinating and integrating their information management systems. Although it is beginning to be technically feasible to have a system with text, bibliographic, and numeric data online for the user to manipulate at the user's own workstation, it will require national recognition that the resource investment in such a system is worthwhile, in order to promote its full development. It also requires close cooperation between the producers and users of the information - that is, the research and policy community, and the information community. National resources need to be mobilized in a coordinated manner to move people into the next generation of information support systems.

  19. Enhancing Polyhedral Relaxations for Global Optimization

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bao, Xiaowei

    2009-01-01

    During the last decade, global optimization has attracted a lot of attention due to the increased practical need for obtaining global solutions and the success in solving many global optimization problems that were previously considered intractable. In general, the central question of global optimization is to find an optimal solution to a given…

  20. Preparing Global Citizens

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Roberts, Dennis C.; Welch, Lucas; Al-Khanji, Khalid

    2013-01-01

    Global citizens are those who are aware of, demonstrate respect for, and are comfortable engaging across cultural boundaries. This article explores why preparing global citizens is important and how positive psychology can inform our understanding of those who engage comfortably in today's complicated world. Soliya's Connect program is described…

  1. An Improved Statistical Solution for Global Seismicity by the HIST-ETAS Approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chu, A.; Ogata, Y.; Katsura, K.

    2010-12-01

    For long-term global seismic model fitting, recent work by Chu et al. (2010) applied the spatial-temporal ETAS model (Ogata 1998) and analyzed global data partitioned into tectonic zones based on geophysical characteristics (Bird 2003), and it has shown tremendous improvements of model fitting compared with one overall global model. While the ordinary ETAS model assumes constant parameter values across the complete region analyzed, the hierarchical space-time ETAS model (HIST-ETAS, Ogata 2004) is a newly introduced approach by proposing regional distinctions of the parameters for more accurate seismic prediction. As the HIST-ETAS model has been fit to regional data of Japan (Ogata 2010), our work applies the model to describe global seismicity. Employing the Akaike's Bayesian Information Criterion (ABIC) as an assessment method, we compare the MLE results with zone divisions considered to results obtained by an overall global model. Location dependent parameters of the model and Gutenberg-Richter b-values are optimized, and seismological interpretations are discussed.

  2. Development of global health education at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: a student-driven initiative.

    PubMed

    Moran, Dane; Edwardson, Jill; Cuneo, Charles Nicholas; Tackett, Sean; Aluri, James; Kironji, Antony; Cox, Jacob; Carroll, Bryn; Lie, Erina; Fofana, Mariam; Bollinger, Robert C; Ziegelstein, Roy C; Chen, Chi C G

    2015-01-01

    Global health is increasingly present in the formal educational curricula of medical schools across North America. In 2008, students at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) perceived a lack of structured global health education in the existing curriculum and began working with the administration to enhance global health learning opportunities, particularly in resource-poor settings. Key events in the development of global health education have included the introduction of a global health intersession mandatory for all first-year students; required pre-departure ethics training for students before all international electives; and the development of a clinical global health elective (Global Health Leadership Program, GHLP). The main challenges to improving global health education for medical students have included securing funding, obtaining institutional support, and developing an interprofessional program that benefits from the resources of the Schools of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing. Strategies used included objectively demonstrating the need for and barriers to more structured global health experiences; obtaining guidance and modifying existing resources from other institutions and relevant educational websites; and harnessing institution-specific strengths including the large Johns Hopkins global research footprint and existing interprofessional collaborations across the three schools. The Johns Hopkins experience demonstrates that with a supportive administration, students can play an important and effective role in improving global health educational opportunities. The strategies we used may be informative for other students and educators looking to implement global health programs at their own institutions.

  3. 7 CFR 4290.620 - Requirements to obtain information from Portfolio Concerns.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... English. (a) Information for initial Financing decision. Before extending any Financing, you must require... financing proceeds), cash flow analyses, projections, and such economic development information about the Enterprise, as are necessary to support your investment decision. The information submitted must be...

  4. Global and Local Partitioning of the Charge Transferred in the Parr-Pearson Model.

    PubMed

    Orozco-Valencia, Angel Ulises; Gázquez, José L; Vela, Alberto

    2017-05-25

    Through a simple proposal, the charge transfer obtained from the cornerstone theory of Parr and Pearson is partitioned, for each reactant, in two channels: an electrophilic, through which the species accepts electrons, and the other, a nucleophilic, where the species donates electrons. It is shown that this global model allows us to determine unambiguously the charge-transfer mechanism prevailing in a given reaction. The partitioning is extended to include local effects through the Fukui functions of the reactants. This local model is applied to several emblematic reactions in organic and inorganic chemistry, and we show that besides improving the correlations obtained with the global model it provides valuable information concerning the atoms in the reactants playing the most important roles in the reaction and thus improving our understanding of the reaction under study.

  5. Terminology and global standardization of endoscopic information: Minimal Standard Terminology (MST).

    PubMed

    Fujino, Masayuki A; Bito, Shigeru; Takei, Kazuko; Mizuno, Shigeto; Yokoi, Hideto

    2006-01-01

    Since 1994, following the leading efforts by the European Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Organisation Mondiale d'Endoscopie Digestive (OMED) has succeeded in compiling minimal number of terms required for computer generation of digestive endoscopy reports nicknamed MST (Minimal Standard Terminology). Though with some insufficiencies, and though developed only for digestive endoscopy, MST has been the only available terminology that is globally standardized in medicine. By utilizing the merits of a unified, structured terminology that can be used in multiple languages we can utilize the data stored in different languages as a common database. For this purpose, a standing, terminology-managing organization that manages and maintains and, when required, expands the terminology on a global level, is absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, however, the organization that performs version control of MST (OMED terminology, standardization and data processing committee) is currently suspending its activity. Medical practice of the world demands more and more specialization, with resultant needs for information exchange among specialized territories. As the cooperation between endoscopy and pathology has become currently the most important problem in the Endoscopy Working Group of Integrating Healthcare Enterprise-Japan (IHE-J,) the cooperation among different specialties is essential. There are DICOM or HL7 standards as the protocols for storage, and exchange (communication) of the data, but there is yet no organization that manages the terminology itself astride different specialties. We hereby propose to establish, within IEEE, for example, a system that promotes standardization of the terminology that can transversely describe a patient, and that can control different societies and groups, as far as the terminology is concerned.

  6. Comparing the Reliability and Validity of Global Self-Report Measures of Subjective Well-Being With Experiential Day Reconstruction Measures.

    PubMed

    Hudson, Nathan W; Anusic, Ivana; Lucas, Richard E; Donnellan, M Brent

    2017-12-01

    Self-report measures of global well-being are thought to reflect the overall quality of people's lives. However, several scholars have argued that people rely on heuristics, such as current mood, when reporting their global well-being. Experiential well-being measures, such as the day reconstruction method (DRM), have been proposed as an alternative technique to obtain a potentially more accurate assessment of well-being. Across two multimethod, short-term longitudinal studies, we compared the psychometric properties of global self-reports and short-form DRM-based assessments of well-being. We evaluated their stability across one month, tested their convergent validity using self-informant agreement, and evaluated correlations with personality traits. Results indicated that global measures of well-being were more stable than DRM-based experiential measures. Self-informant agreement was also either equal across global and DRM measures or higher for global measures. Correlations with personality were similar across approaches. These findings suggest that DRM and global measures of well-being have similar psychometric properties when used to provide an overall assessment of a person's typical level of subjective well-being.

  7. 78 FR 47004 - Digital Trade in the U.S. and Global Economies, Part 2; Proposed Information Collection; Comment...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-02

    ... INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION [Investigation No. 332-540] Digital Trade in the U.S. and Global Economies, Part 2; Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Digital Trade 2 Questionnaire AGENCY: United States International Trade Commission ACTION: In accordance with the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter...

  8. Global Diversity of Sponges (Porifera)

    PubMed Central

    Van Soest, Rob W. M.; Boury-Esnault, Nicole; Vacelet, Jean; Dohrmann, Martin; Erpenbeck, Dirk; De Voogd, Nicole J.; Santodomingo, Nadiezhda; Vanhoorne, Bart; Kelly, Michelle; Hooper, John N. A.

    2012-01-01

    With the completion of a single unified classification, the Systema Porifera (SP) and subsequent development of an online species database, the World Porifera Database (WPD), we are now equipped to provide a first comprehensive picture of the global biodiversity of the Porifera. An introductory overview of the four classes of the Porifera is followed by a description of the structure of our main source of data for this paper, the WPD. From this we extracted numbers of all ‘known’ sponges to date: the number of valid Recent sponges is established at 8,553, with the vast majority, 83%, belonging to the class Demospongiae. We also mapped for the first time the species richness of a comprehensive set of marine ecoregions of the world, data also extracted from the WPD. Perhaps not surprisingly, these distributions appear to show a strong bias towards collection and taxonomy efforts. Only when species richness is accumulated into large marine realms does a pattern emerge that is also recognized in many other marine animal groups: high numbers in tropical regions, lesser numbers in the colder parts of the world oceans. Preliminary similarity analysis of a matrix of species and marine ecoregions extracted from the WPD failed to yield a consistent hierarchical pattern of ecoregions into marine provinces. Global sponge diversity information is mostly generated in regional projects and resources: results obtained demonstrate that regional approaches to analytical biogeography are at present more likely to achieve insights into the biogeographic history of sponges than a global perspective, which appears currently too ambitious. We also review information on invasive sponges that might well have some influence on distribution patterns of the future. PMID:22558119

  9. Contextual cueing in naturalistic scenes: Global and local contexts.

    PubMed

    Brockmole, James R; Castelhano, Monica S; Henderson, John M

    2006-07-01

    In contextual cueing, the position of a target within a group of distractors is learned over repeated exposure to a display with reference to a few nearby items rather than to the global pattern created by the elements. The authors contrasted the role of global and local contexts for contextual cueing in naturalistic scenes. Experiment 1 showed that learned target positions transfer when local information is altered but not when global information is changed. Experiment 2 showed that scene-target covariation is learned more slowly when local, but not global, information is repeated across trials than when global but not local information is repeated. Thus, in naturalistic scenes, observers are biased to associate target locations with global contexts. Copyright 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

  10. Inferring influenza global transmission networks without complete phylogenetic information

    PubMed Central

    Aris-Brosou, Stéphane

    2014-01-01

    Influenza is one of the most severe respiratory infections affecting humans throughout the world, yet the dynamics of its global transmission network are still contentious. Here, I describe a novel combination of phylogenetics, time series, and graph theory to analyze 14.25 years of data stratified in space and in time, focusing on the main target of the human immune response, the hemagglutinin gene. While bypassing the complete phylogenetic inference of huge data sets, the method still extracts information suggesting that waves of genetic or of nucleotide diversity circulate continuously around the globe for subtypes that undergo sustained transmission over several seasons, such as H3N2 and pandemic H1N1/09, while diversity of prepandemic H1N1 viruses had until 2009 a noncontinuous transmission pattern consistent with a source/sink model. Irrespective of the shift in the structure of H1N1 diversity circulation with the emergence of the pandemic H1N1/09 strain, US prevalence peaks during the winter months when genetic diversity is at its lowest. This suggests that a dominant strain is generally responsible for epidemics and that monitoring genetic and/or nucleotide diversity in real time could provide public health agencies with an indirect estimate of prevalence. PMID:24665342

  11. BIDDSAT: visualizing the content of biodiversity data publishers in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility network.

    PubMed

    Otegui, Javier; Ariño, Arturo H

    2012-08-15

    In any data quality workflow, data publishers must become aware of issues in their data so these can be corrected. User feedback mechanisms provide one avenue, while global assessments of datasets provide another. To date, there is no publicly available tool to allow both biodiversity data institutions sharing their data through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility network and its potential users to assess datasets as a whole. Contributing to bridge this gap both for publishers and users, we introduce BIoDiversity DataSets Assessment Tool, an online tool that enables selected diagnostic visualizations on the content of data publishers and/or their individual collections. The online application is accessible at http://www.unav.es/unzyec/mzna/biddsat/ and is supported by all major browsers. The source code is licensed under the GNU GPLv3 license (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt) and is available at https://github.com/jotegui/BIDDSAT.

  12. Global Warming and the Greenhouse Effect: January 1986-January 1992. Quick Bibliography Series: QB 92-36.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    MacLean, Jayne T.

    This bibliography contains 442 journal article, book, and audiovisual citations on global warming and the greenhouse effect entered into the National Agricultural Library's AGRICOLA database between January 1979 and March 1992. The bibliography contains an author and subject index as well as information on obtaining documents. (LZ)

  13. Particle swarm optimization using multi-information characteristics of all personal-best information.

    PubMed

    Huang, Song; Tian, Na; Wang, Yan; Ji, Zhicheng

    2016-01-01

    Convergence stagnation is the chief difficulty to solve hard optimization problems for most particle swarm optimization variants. To address this issue, a novel particle swarm optimization using multi-information characteristics of all personal-best information is developed in our research. In the modified algorithm, two positions are defined by personal-best positions and an improved cognition term with three positions of all personal-best information is used in velocity update equation to enhance the search capability. This strategy could make particles fly to a better direction by discovering useful information from all the personal-best positions. The validity of the proposed algorithm is assessed on twenty benchmark problems including unimodal, multimodal, rotated and shifted functions, and the results are compared with that obtained by some published variants of particle swarm optimization in the literature. Computational results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm finds several global optimum and high-quality solutions in most case with a fast convergence speed.

  14. Dataset of MIGRAME Project (Global Change, Altitudinal Range Shift and Colonization of Degraded Habitats in Mediterranean Mountains)

    PubMed Central

    Pérez-Luque, Antonio Jesús; Zamora, Regino; Bonet, Francisco Javier; Pérez-Pérez, Ramón

    2015-01-01

    Abstract In this data paper, we describe the dataset of the Global Change, Altitudinal Range Shift and Colonization of Degraded Habitats in Mediterranean Mountains (MIGRAME) project, which aims to assess the capacity of altitudinal migration and colonization of marginal habitats by Quercus pyrenaica Willd. forests in Sierra Nevada (southern Spain) considering two global-change drivers: temperature increase and land-use changes. The dataset includes information of the forest structure (diameter size, tree height, and abundance) of the Quercus pyrenaica ecosystem in Sierra Nevada obtained from 199 transects sampled at the treeline ecotone, mature forest, and marginal habitats (abandoned cropland and pine plantations). A total of 3839 occurrence records were collected and 5751 measurements recorded. The dataset is included in the Sierra Nevada Global-Change Observatory (OBSNEV), a long-term research project designed to compile socio-ecological information on the major ecosystem types in order to identify the impacts of global change in this mountain range. PMID:26491387

  15. Global stability and periodic solution of the viral dynamics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, Xinyu; Neumann, Avidan U.

    2007-05-01

    It is well known that the mathematical models provide very important information for the research of human immunodeficiency virus-type 1 and hepatitis C virus (HCV). However, the infection rate of almost all mathematical models is linear. The linearity shows the simple interaction between the T cells and the viral particles. In this paper, we consider the classical mathematical model with saturation response of the infection rate. By stability analysis we obtain sufficient conditions on the parameters for the global stability of the infected steady state and the infection-free steady state. We also obtain the conditions for the existence of an orbitally asymptotically stable periodic solution. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the results.

  16. Global Flood Response Using Satellite Rainfall Information Coupled with Land Surface and Routing Models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adler, R. F.; Wu, H.

    2016-12-01

    The Global Flood Monitoring System (GFMS) (http://flood.umd.edu) has been developed and used in recent years to provide real-time flood detection, streamflow estimates and inundation calculations for most of the globe. The GFMS is driven by satellite-based precipitation, with the accuracy of the flood estimates being primarily dependent on the accuracy of the precipitation analyses and the land surface and routing models used. The routing calculations are done at both 12 km and 1 km resolution. Users of GFMS results include international and national flood response organizations. The devastating floods in October 2015 in South Carolina are analyzed indicating that the GFMS estimated streamflow is accurate and useful indicating significant flooding in the upstream basins. Further downstream the GFMS streamflow underestimates due to the presence of dams which are not accounted for in GFMS. Other examples are given for Yemen and Somalia and for Sri Lanka and southern India. A forecast flood event associated with a typhoon hitting Taiwan is also examined. One-kilometer resolution inundation mapping from GFMS holds the promise of highly useful information for flood disaster response. The algorithm is briefly described and examples are shown for recent cases where inundation estimates available from optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite sensors are available. For a case of significant flooding in Texas in May and June along the Brazos River the GFMS calculated streamflow compares favorably with the observed. Available Landsat-based (May 28) and MODIS-based (June 2) inundation analyses from U. of Colorado shows generally good agreement with the GFMS inundation calculation in most of the area where skies were clear and the optical techniques could be applied. The GFMS provides very useful disaster response information on a timely basis. However, there is still significant room for improvement, including improved precipitation information from NASA's Global

  17. A globally optimal k-anonymity method for the de-identification of health data.

    PubMed

    El Emam, Khaled; Dankar, Fida Kamal; Issa, Romeo; Jonker, Elizabeth; Amyot, Daniel; Cogo, Elise; Corriveau, Jean-Pierre; Walker, Mark; Chowdhury, Sadrul; Vaillancourt, Regis; Roffey, Tyson; Bottomley, Jim

    2009-01-01

    Explicit patient consent requirements in privacy laws can have a negative impact on health research, leading to selection bias and reduced recruitment. Often legislative requirements to obtain consent are waived if the information collected or disclosed is de-identified. The authors developed and empirically evaluated a new globally optimal de-identification algorithm that satisfies the k-anonymity criterion and that is suitable for health datasets. Authors compared OLA (Optimal Lattice Anonymization) empirically to three existing k-anonymity algorithms, Datafly, Samarati, and Incognito, on six public, hospital, and registry datasets for different values of k and suppression limits. Measurement Three information loss metrics were used for the comparison: precision, discernability metric, and non-uniform entropy. Each algorithm's performance speed was also evaluated. The Datafly and Samarati algorithms had higher information loss than OLA and Incognito; OLA was consistently faster than Incognito in finding the globally optimal de-identification solution. For the de-identification of health datasets, OLA is an improvement on existing k-anonymity algorithms in terms of information loss and performance.

  18. Stochastic process of pragmatic information for 2D spiral wave turbulence in globally and locally coupled Alief-Panfilov oscillators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kuwahara, Jun; Miyata, Hajime; Konno, Hidetoshi

    2017-09-01

    Recently, complex dynamics of globally coupled oscillators have been attracting many researcher's attentions. In spite of their numerous studies, their features of nonlinear oscillator systems with global and local couplings in two-dimension (2D) are not understood fully. The paper focuses on 2D states of coherent, clustered and chaotic oscillation especially under the effect of negative global coupling (NGC) in 2D Alief-Panfilov model. It is found that the tuning NGC can cause various new coupling-parameter dependency on the features of oscillations. Then quantitative characterization of various states of oscillations (so called spiral wave turbulence) is examined by using the pragmatic information (PI) which have been utilized in analyzing multimode laser, solar activity and neuronal systems. It is demonstrated that the dynamics of the PI for various oscillations can be characterized successfully by the Hyper-Gamma stochastic process.

  19. The vulnerability of being ill informed: the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and Global Public Health.

    PubMed

    Greenberg, Henry; Shiau, Stephanie

    2014-09-01

    The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is a regional trade agreement currently being negotiated by 11 Pacific Rim countries, excluding China. While the negotiations are being conducted under a veil of secrecy, substantive leaks over the past 4 years have revealed a broad view of the proposed contents. As it stands the TPPA poses serious risks to global public health, particularly chronic, non-communicable diseases. At greatest risk are national tobacco regulations, regulations governing the emergence of generic drugs and controls over food imports by transnational corporations. Aside from a small group of public health professionals from Australia, the academic public health community has missed these threats to the global community, although many other health-related entities, international lawyers and health-conscious politicians have voiced serious concerns. As of mid-2014 there has been no comment in the leading public health journals. This large lacuna in interest or recognition reflects the larger problem that the public health education community has all but ignored global non-communicable diseases. Without such a focus, the risks are unseen and the threats not perceived. This cautionary tale of the TPPA reflects the vulnerability of being ill informed of contemporary realities. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  20. Hierarchical ensemble of global and local classifiers for face recognition.

    PubMed

    Su, Yu; Shan, Shiguang; Chen, Xilin; Gao, Wen

    2009-08-01

    In the literature of psychophysics and neurophysiology, many studies have shown that both global and local features are crucial for face representation and recognition. This paper proposes a novel face recognition method which exploits both global and local discriminative features. In this method, global features are extracted from the whole face images by keeping the low-frequency coefficients of Fourier transform, which we believe encodes the holistic facial information, such as facial contour. For local feature extraction, Gabor wavelets are exploited considering their biological relevance. After that, Fisher's linear discriminant (FLD) is separately applied to the global Fourier features and each local patch of Gabor features. Thus, multiple FLD classifiers are obtained, each embodying different facial evidences for face recognition. Finally, all these classifiers are combined to form a hierarchical ensemble classifier. We evaluate the proposed method using two large-scale face databases: FERET and FRGC version 2.0. Experiments show that the results of our method are impressively better than the best known results with the same evaluation protocol.

  1. Ganymede Global Geologic Map and Global Image Mosaic

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2014-02-12

    To present the best information in a single view of Jupiter moon Ganymede, a global image mosaic was assembled, incorporating the best available imagery from NASA Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft and NASA Galileo spacecraft.

  2. Climate Services Information System Activities in Support of The Global Framework for Climate Services Implementation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Timofeyeva-Livezey, M. M.; Horsfall, F. M. C.; Pulwarty, R. S.; Klein-Tank, A.; Kolli, R. K.; Hechler, P.; Dilley, M.; Ceron, J. P.; Goodess, C.

    2017-12-01

    The WMO Commission on Climatology (CCl) supports the implementation of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) with a particular focus on the Climate Services Information System (CSIS), which is the core operational component of GFCS at the global, regional, and national level. CSIS is designed for producing, packaging and operationally delivering authoritative climate information data and products through appropriate operational systems, practices, data exchange, technical standards, authentication, communication, and product delivery. Its functions include climate analysis and monitoring, assessment and attribution, prediction (monthly, seasonal, decadal), and projection (centennial scale) as well as tailoring the associated products tUEAo suit user requirements. A central, enabling piece of implementation of CSIS is a Climate Services Toolkit (CST). In its development phase, CST exists as a prototype (www.wmo.int/cst) as a compilation of tools for generating tailored data and products for decision-making, with a special focus on national requirements in developing countries. WMO provides a server to house the CST prototype as well as support operations and maintenance. WMO members provide technical expertise and other in-kind support, including leadership of the CSIS development team. Several recent WMO events have helped with the deployment of CST within the eight countries that have been recognized by GFCS as illustrative for developing their climate services at national levels. Currently these countries are developing climate services projects focusing service development and delivery for selected economic sectors, such as for health, agriculture, energy, water resources, and hydrometeorological disaster risk reduction. These countries are working together with their respective WMO Regional Climate Centers (RCCs), which provide technical assistance with implementation of climate services projects at the country level and facilitate development of

  3. Correlation between doctor's belief on the patient's self-determination and medical outcomes in obtaining informed consent.

    PubMed

    Yoshihara, Keisuke; Takase, Kozo

    2013-03-01

    We employed a questionnaire survey to assess attitudes toward informed consent (IC) among hospital doctors. Based on the result of the correlation analysis, the following two hypotheses were identified. The first hypothesis is that "the doctor's belief that the patient's self-determination is possible promotes cure of illness by obtaining IC." The second hypothesis is that "the doctor's belief that the patient's self-determination is possible has a positive influence on patient's quality of life by obtaining IC." We clarified the rationale for explaining these two hypotheses by applying cross tabulation analysis, discriminant analysis and principal component analysis (PCA). The doctors were divided into two groups in terms of their position on the patient's self-determination. One group of doctors believed the possibility of patient's self-determination, and the other did not. Through our statistical analyses, the characteristics that discriminate these two groups were identified. It was revealed that the former group placed a great importance on the hospitality value, while the latter placed an importance on the service value. Agreement or rejection of the concept of IC has been demonstrated as a key distinguishing factor between the two groups. The results of PCA showed that the doctor's belief on the patient's self-determination in obtaining IC had a significant effect on medical outcomes, and the two above-mentioned hypotheses were revealed.

  4. Global Food Security Index Studies and Satellite Information

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Medina, T. A.; Ganti-Agrawal, S.; Joshi, D.; Lakhankar, T.

    2017-12-01

    Food yield is equal to the total crop harvest per unit cultivated area. During the elapsed time of germination and frequent harvesting, both human and climate related effects determine a country's' contribution towards global food security. Each country across the globe's annual income per capita was collected to then determine nine countries for further studies. For a location to be chosen, its income per capita needed to be considered poor, uprising or wealthy. Both physical land cover and regional climate helped categorize potential parameters thought to be studied. Once selected, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data was collected for Ethiopia, Liberia, Indonesia, United States, Norway, Russia, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia over the recent 16 years for approximately every 16 days starting from early in the year 2000. Software languages such as Geographic Information System (GIS), MatLab and Excel were used to determine how population size, income and deforestation directly determines agricultural yields. Because of high maintenance requirements for large harvests when forest areas are cleared, they often have a reduction in soil quality, requiring fertilizer use to produce sufficient crop yields. Total area and vegetation index of each country is to be studied, to determine crop and deforestation percentages. To determine how deforestation impacts future income and crop yield predictions of each country studied. By using NDVI results a parameter is to be potentially found that will help define an index, to create an equation that will determine a country's annual income and ability to provide for their families and themselves.

  5. Accessing global data from accelerator devices

    DOEpatents

    Bertolli, Carlo; O'Brien, John K.; Sallenave, Olivier H.; Sura, Zehra N.

    2016-12-06

    An aspect includes a table of contents (TOC) that was generated by a compiler being received at an accelerator device. The TOC includes an address of global data in a host memory space. The global data is copied from the address in the host memory space to an address in the device memory space. The address in the host memory space is obtained from the received TOC. The received TOC is updated to indicate that global data is stored at the address in the device memory space. A kernel that accesses the global data from the address in the device memory space is executed. The address in the device memory space is obtained based on contents of the updated TOC. When the executing is completed, the global data from the address in the device memory space is copied to the address in the host memory space.

  6. Accessing global data from accelerator devices

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

    Bertolli, Carlo; O'Brien, John K.; Sallenave, Olivier H.

    2016-12-06

    An aspect includes a table of contents (TOC) that was generated by a compiler being received at an accelerator device. The TOC includes an address of global data in a host memory space. The global data is copied from the address in the host memory space to an address in the device memory space. The address in the host memory space is obtained from the received TOC. The received TOC is updated to indicate that global data is stored at the address in the device memory space. A kernel that accesses the global data from the address in the devicemore » memory space is executed. The address in the device memory space is obtained based on contents of the updated TOC. When the executing is completed, the global data from the address in the device memory space is copied to the address in the host memory space.« less

  7. Quick concurrent responses to global and local cognitive information underlie intuitive understanding in board-game experts

    PubMed Central

    Nakatani, Hironori; Yamaguchi, Yoko

    2014-01-01

    Experts have the superior cognitive capability of quickly understanding complex information in their domain; however, little is known about the neural processes underlying this ability. Here, using a board game named shogi (Japanese chess), we investigated the brain activity in expert players that was involved in their quick understanding of board-game patterns. The frontal area responded only to meaningful game positions, whereas the temporal area responded to both game and random positions with the same latency (200 ms). Subsequent to these quick responses, the temporal and parietal areas responded only to game positions, with a latency of 700 ms. During the responses, enhanced phase synchronization between these areas was observed. Thus, experts first responded to global cognitive information that was specific to game positions and to local cognitive information that was common to game and random positions concurrently. These types of information were integrated via neural synchronization at the posterior areas. As these properties were specific to experts, much of the experts' advantage in understanding game positions occurred within 1 s of perception. PMID:25081320

  8. MO/DSD online information server and global information repository access

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nguyen, Diem; Ghaffarian, Kam; Hogie, Keith; Mackey, William

    1994-01-01

    Often in the past, standards and new technology information have been available only in hardcopy form, with reproduction and mailing costs proving rather significant. In light of NASA's current budget constraints and in the interest of efficient communications, the Mission Operations and Data Systems Directorate (MO&DSD) New Technology and Data Standards Office recognizes the need for an online information server (OLIS). This server would allow: (1) dissemination of standards and new technology information throughout the Directorate more quickly and economically; (2) online browsing and retrieval of documents that have been published for and by MO&DSD; and (3) searching for current and past study activities on related topics within NASA before issuing a task. This paper explores a variety of available information servers and searching tools, their current capabilities and limitations, and the application of these tools to MO&DSD. Most importantly, the discussion focuses on the way this concept could be easily applied toward improving dissemination of standards and new technologies and improving documentation processes.

  9. AIM satellite-based research bridges the unique scientific aspects of the mission to informal education programs globally

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Robinson, D.; Maggi, B.

    2003-04-01

    The Education and Public Outreach (EPO) component of the satellite-based research mission "Aeronomy of Ice In the Mesosphere" (AIM) will bridge the unique scientific aspects of the mission to informal education organizations. The informal education materials developed by the EPO will utilize AIM data and educate the public about the environmental implications associated with the data. This will assist with creating a scientifically literate workforce and in developing a citizenry capable of making educated decisions related to environmental policies and laws. The objective of the AIM mission is to understand the mechanisms that cause Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs) to form, how their presence affects the atmosphere, and how change in the atmosphere affects them. PMCs are sometimes known as Noctilucent Clouds (NLCs) because of their visibility during the night from appropriate locations. The phenomenon of PMCs is an observable indicator of global change, a concern to all citizens. Recent sightings of these clouds over populated regions have compelled AIM educators to expand informal education opportunities to communities worldwide. Collaborations with informal organizations include: Museums/Science Centers; NASA Sun-Earth Connection Forum; Alaska Native Ways of Knowing Project; Amateur Noctilucent Cloud Observers Organization; National Parks Education Programs; After School Science Clubs; Public Broadcasting Associations; and National Public Radio. The Native Ways of Knowing Project is an excellent example of informal collaboration with the AIM EPO. This Alaska based project will assist native peoples of the state with photographing NLCs for the EPO website. It will also aid the EPO with developing materials for informal organizations that incorporate traditional native knowledge and science, related to the sky. Another AIM collaboration that will offer citizens lasting informal education opportunities is the one established with the United States National Parks

  10. Global form and motion processing in healthy ageing.

    PubMed

    Agnew, Hannah C; Phillips, Louise H; Pilz, Karin S

    2016-05-01

    The ability to perceive biological motion has been shown to deteriorate with age, and it is assumed that older adults rely more on the global form than local motion information when processing point-light walkers. Further, it has been suggested that biological motion processing in ageing is related to a form-based global processing bias. Here, we investigated the relationship between older adults' preference for form information when processing point-light actions and an age-related form-based global processing bias. In a first task, we asked older (>60years) and younger adults (19-23years) to sequentially match three different point-light actions; normal actions that contained local motion and global form information, scrambled actions that contained primarily local motion information, and random-position actions that contained primarily global form information. Both age groups overall performed above chance in all three conditions, and were more accurate for actions that contained global form information. For random-position actions, older adults were less accurate than younger adults but there was no age-difference for normal or scrambled actions. These results indicate that both age groups rely more on global form than local motion to match point-light actions, but can use local motion on its own to match point-light actions. In a second task, we investigated form-based global processing biases using the Navon task. In general, participants were better at discriminating the local letters but faster at discriminating global letters. Correlations showed that there was no significant linear relationship between performance in the Navon task and biological motion processing, which suggests that processing biases in form- and motion-based tasks are unrelated. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  11. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Technology as a Global Learning Tool: Information Systems Success and Control Belief Perspectives

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Charlie C.; Vannoy, Sandra

    2013-01-01

    Voice over Internet Protocol- (VoIP) enabled online learning service providers struggling with high attrition rates and low customer loyalty issues despite VoIP's high degree of system fit for online global learning applications. Effective solutions to this prevalent problem rely on the understanding of system quality, information quality, and…

  12. Cosmic microwave background constraints for global strings and global monopoles

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

    Lopez-Eiguren, Asier; Lizarraga, Joanes; Urrestilla, Jon

    We present the first cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectra from numerical simulations of the global O( N ) linear σ-model, with N =2,3, which have global strings and monopoles as topological defects. In order to compute the CMB power spectra we compute the unequal time correlators (UETCs) of the energy-momentum tensor, showing that they fall off at high wave number faster than naive estimates based on the geometry of the defects, indicating non-trivial (anti-)correlations between the defects and the surrounding Goldstone boson field. We obtain source functions for Einstein-Boltzmann solvers from the UETCs, using a recently developed method thatmore » improves the modelling at the radiation-matter transition. We show that the interpolation function that mimics the transition is similar to other defect models, but not identical, confirming the non-universality of the interpolation function. The CMB power spectra for global strings and global monopoles have the same overall shape as those obtained using the non-linear σ-model approximation, which is well captured by a large- N calculation. However, the amplitudes are larger than the large- N calculation would naively predict, and in the case of global strings much larger: a factor of 20 at the peak. Finally we compare the CMB power spectra with the latest CMB data in other to put limits on the allowed contribution to the temperature power spectrum at multipole l = 10 of 1.7% for global strings and 2.4% for global monopoles. These limits correspond to symmetry-breaking scales of 2.9× 10{sup 15} GeV (6.3× 10{sup 14} GeV with the expected logarithmic scaling of the effective string tension between the simulation time and decoupling) and 6.4× 10{sup 15} GeV respectively. The bound on global strings is a significant one for the ultra-light axion scenario with axion masses m {sub a} ∼< 10{sup −28} eV . These upper limits indicate that gravitational waves from global topological defects will not be

  13. 30 CFR 285.113 - How will data and information obtained by MMS under this part be disclosed to the public?

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false How will data and information obtained by MMS under this part be disclosed to the public? 285.113 Section 285.113 Mineral Resources MINERALS MANAGEMENT SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFSHORE RENEWABLE ENERGY ALTERNATE USES OF EXISTING...

  14. Communication in Medicine: A Study of How Family Doctors Obtain Information on Recent Advances in the Treatment of Rheumatic Diseases

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murray-Lyon, N.

    1977-01-01

    The results of a questionnaire on how 131 family doctors in Glasgow and the West of Scotland obtain information regarding recent advances are described, indicating that medical journals and formal lectures and symposia are still popular. Tape/slide and television presentations were not considered of much value. (Author/LBH)

  15. Development of a graphical user interface for the global land information system (GLIS)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Alstad, Susan R.; Jackson, David A.

    1993-01-01

    The process of developing a Motif Graphical User Interface for the Global Land Information System (GLIS) involved incorporating user requirements, in-house visual and functional design requirements, and Open Software Foundation (OSF) Motif style guide standards. Motif user interface windows have been developed using the software to support Motif window functions war written using the C programming language. The GLIS architecture was modified to support multiple servers and remote handlers running the X Window System by forming a network of servers and handlers connected by TCP/IP communications. In April 1993, prior to release the GLIS graphical user interface and system architecture modifications were test by developers and users located at the EROS Data Center and 11 beta test sites across the country.

  16. Informed consent should be obtained from patients to use products (skin substitutes) and dressings containing biological material.

    PubMed

    Enoch, S; Shaaban, H; Dunn, K W

    2005-01-01

    Biological products (tissue engineered skin, allograft and xenograft, and biological dressings) are widely used in the treatment of burns, chronic wounds, and other forms of acute injury. However, the religious and ethical issues, including consent, arising from their use have never been addressed in the medical literature. This study was aimed to ascertain the views of religious leaders about the acceptability of biological products and to evaluate awareness among healthcare professionals about their constituents. The religious groups that make up about 75% of the United Kingdom population were identified and a questionnaire on 11 biological products was sent to its leaders. Another questionnaire concerning 17 products (11 biological and 6 synthetic dressings) was sent to 100 healthcare professionals working in seven specialist units in the UK. All religious leaders (100% response rate) replied, some after consultation with international bodies. Among them, 77% said that patients should be informed of the constituents of the biological products and consent obtained. Some leaders expressed concerns about particular products including the transmission of viral and prion diseases, cruelty to animals, and material derived from neonates. None of the healthcare professionals (73% response rate) surveyed knew the constituents of all the products correctly. Ignoring religious sensitivities and neglecting consent in the usage of biological products could have very serious implications, including litigation. Hospitals and manufacturers should take immediate measures to enlighten healthcare professionals of the constituents of these products so that they can obtain informed consent from patients.

  17. Efficiency of the Use of Pedigree and Molecular Marker Information in Conservation Programs

    PubMed Central

    Fernández, Jesús; Villanueva, Beatriz; Pong-Wong, Ricardo; Toro, Miguel Ángel

    2005-01-01

    The value of molecular markers and pedigree records, separately or in combination, to assist in the management of conserved populations has been tested. The general strategy for managing the population was to optimize contributions of parents to the next generation for minimizing the global weighted coancestry. Strategies differed in the type of information used to compute global coancestries, the number and type of evaluated individuals, and the system of mating. Genealogical information proved to be very useful (at least for 10 generations of management) to arrange individuals' contributions via the minimization of global coancestry. In fact, the level of expected heterozygosity after 10 generations yielded by this strategy was 88–100% of the maximum possible improvement obtained if the genotype for all loci was known. Marker information was of very limited value if used alone. The amount and degree of polymorphism of markers to be used to compute molecular coancestry had to be high to mimic the performance of the strategy relying on pedigree, especially in the short term (for example, >10 markers per chromosome with 10 alleles each were needed if only the parents' genotype was available). When both sources of information are combined to calculate the coancestry conditional on markers, clear increases in effective population size (Ne) were found, but observed diversity levels (either gene or allelic diversity) in the early generations were quite similar to the ones obtained with pedigree alone. The advantage of including molecular information is greater when information is available on a greater number of individuals (offspring and parents vs. parents only). However, for realistic situations (i.e., large genomes) the benefits of using information on offspring are small. The same conclusions were reached when comparing the use of the different types of information (genealogical or/and molecular) to perform minimum coancestry matings. PMID:15879510

  18. The tendency of unconscious thought toward global processing style.

    PubMed

    Li, Jiansheng; Wang, Fan; Shen, Mowei; Fan, Gang

    2017-08-01

    This study explored whether unconscious thought has a tendency to process information globally. In three experiments, a Navon task was used to activate global or local processing styles. Findings showed that in the unconscious-thought groups, those performing the local Navon task presented a poorer decision-making performance when compared to those performing the global Navon task (Experiment 1); participants reported that their judgments were made based on partial attributes (Experiment 2), and evaluated a target individual mainly based on information consistent with stereotypes (Experiment 3). These results showed that when presented with distracter tasks, conscious thought activates local processing, which impairs its ability to process information globally. However, this impairment would not happen if global processing were activated instead. This study provides support to the idea that unconscious thought has a tendency to process information globally. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Google it: obtaining information about local STD/HIV testing services online.

    PubMed

    Habel, Melissa A; Hood, Julia; Desai, Sheila; Kachur, Rachel; Buhi, Eric R; Liddon, Nicole

    2011-04-01

    Although the Internet is one of the most commonly accessed resources for health information, finding information on local sexual health services, such as sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing, can be challenging. Recognizing that most quests for online health information begin with search engines, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the extent to which online information about local STD/HIV testing services can be found using Google. Queries on STD and HIV testing services were executed in Google for 6 geographically unique locations across the United States. The first 3 websites that resulted from each query were coded for the following characteristics: (1) relevancy to the search topic, (2) domain and purpose, (3) rank in Google results, and (4) content. Websites hosted at .com (57.3%), .org (25.7%), and .gov (10.5%) domains were retrieved most frequently. Roughly half of all websites (n = 376) provided information relevant to the query, and about three-quarters (77.0%) of all queries yielded at least 1 relevant website within the first 3 results. Searches for larger cities were more likely to yield relevant results compared with smaller cities (odds ratio [OR] = 10.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 5.6, 17.9). On comparison with .com domains, .gov (OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.4, 5.6) and .org domains (OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.7, 4.8) were more likely to provide information of the location to get tested. Ease of online access to information about sexual health services varies by search topic and locale. Sexual health service providers must optimize their website placement so as to reach a greater proportion of the sexually active population who use web search engines.

  20. On the nature of global classification

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wheelis, M. L.; Kandler, O.; Woese, C. R.

    1992-01-01

    Molecular sequencing technology has brought biology into the era of global (universal) classification. Methodologically and philosophically, global classification differs significantly from traditional, local classification. The need for uniformity requires that higher level taxa be defined on the molecular level in terms of universally homologous functions. A global classification should reflect both principal dimensions of the evolutionary process: genealogical relationship and quality and extent of divergence within a group. The ultimate purpose of a global classification is not simply information storage and retrieval; such a system should also function as an heuristic representation of the evolutionary paradigm that exerts a directing influence on the course of biology. The global system envisioned allows paraphyletic taxa. To retain maximal phylogenetic information in these cases, minor notational amendments in existing taxonomic conventions should be adopted.

  1. Educating anesthesia residents to obtain and document informed consent for epidural labor analgesia: does simulation play a role?

    PubMed

    Antoniou, A; Marmai, K; Qasem, F; Cherry, R; Jones, P M; Singh, S

    2018-05-01

    Informed consent is required before placing an epidural. At our hospital, teaching of residents about this is done informally at the bedside. This study aimed to assess the ability of anesthesia residents to acquire and retain knowledge required when seeking informed consent for epidural labor analgesia. It assessed how well this knowledge was translated to clinical ability, by assessing the verbal consent process during an interaction with a standardized patient. Twenty anesthesia residents were randomized to a 'didactic group' or a 'simulation group'. Each resident was presented with a written scenario and asked to document the informed consent process, as they normally would do (pre-test). The didactic group then had a presentation about informed consent, while the simulation group members interviewed a simulated patient, the scenarios focusing on different aspects of consent. All residents then read a scenario and documented their informed consent process (post-test). Six weeks later all residents interviewed a standardized patient in labor and documented the consent from this interaction (six-week test). There was no significant difference in the baseline performance of the two groups. Both groups showed significant improvement in their written consent documentation at the immediate time point, the improvement in the didactic group being greater. The didactic group performed better at both the immediate time point and the six-week time point. In this small study, a didactic teaching method proved better than simulation-based teaching in helping residents to gain knowledge needed to obtain informed consent for epidural labor analgesia. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. 7 CFR 4290.620 - Requirements to obtain information from Portfolio Concerns.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... the Enterprise to submit such financial statements, plans of operation (including intended use of financing proceeds), cash flow analyses, projections, and such economic development information about the... financial and economic development information. (1) The terms of each Financing must require the Portfolio...

  3. Students Seeking Information for Their Masters' Theses: The Effect of the Internet

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Junni, Paulina

    2007-01-01

    Introduction: The Internet has radically changed the global availability of scholarly publications. Today, a substantial part of the resources accessible for researchers and university students are offered through electronic site licenses, making the supply of easily obtainable information larger than ever. This brings forth an important question:…

  4. Comprehensive effective and efficient global public health surveillance

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    At a crossroads, global public health surveillance exists in a fragmented state. Slow to detect, register, confirm, and analyze cases of public health significance, provide feedback, and communicate timely and useful information to stakeholders, global surveillance is neither maximally effective nor optimally efficient. Stakeholders lack a globa surveillance consensus policy and strategy; officials face inadequate training and scarce resources. Three movements now set the stage for transformation of surveillance: 1) adoption by Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) of the revised International Health Regulations (IHR[2005]); 2) maturation of information sciences and the penetration of information technologies to distal parts of the globe; and 3) consensus that the security and public health communities have overlapping interests and a mutual benefit in supporting public health functions. For these to enhance surveillance competencies, eight prerequisites should be in place: politics, policies, priorities, perspectives, procedures, practices, preparation, and payers. To achieve comprehensive, global surveillance, disparities in technical, logistic, governance, and financial capacities must be addressed. Challenges to closing these gaps include the lack of trust and transparency; perceived benefit at various levels; global governance to address data power and control; and specified financial support from globa partners. We propose an end-state perspective for comprehensive, effective and efficient global, multiple-hazard public health surveillance and describe a way forward to achieve it. This end-state is universal, global access to interoperable public health information when it’s needed, where it’s needed. This vision mitigates the tension between two fundamental human rights: first, the right to privacy, confidentiality, and security of personal health information combined with the right of sovereign, national entities to the ownership and

  5. Comprehensive effective and efficient global public health surveillance.

    PubMed

    McNabb, Scott J N

    2010-12-03

    At a crossroads, global public health surveillance exists in a fragmented state. Slow to detect, register, confirm, and analyze cases of public health significance, provide feedback, and communicate timely and useful information to stakeholders, global surveillance is neither maximally effective nor optimally efficient. Stakeholders lack a globa surveillance consensus policy and strategy; officials face inadequate training and scarce resources.Three movements now set the stage for transformation of surveillance: 1) adoption by Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) of the revised International Health Regulations (IHR[2005]); 2) maturation of information sciences and the penetration of information technologies to distal parts of the globe; and 3) consensus that the security and public health communities have overlapping interests and a mutual benefit in supporting public health functions. For these to enhance surveillance competencies, eight prerequisites should be in place: politics, policies, priorities, perspectives, procedures, practices, preparation, and payers.To achieve comprehensive, global surveillance, disparities in technical, logistic, governance, and financial capacities must be addressed. Challenges to closing these gaps include the lack of trust and transparency; perceived benefit at various levels; global governance to address data power and control; and specified financial support from globa partners.We propose an end-state perspective for comprehensive, effective and efficient global, multiple-hazard public health surveillance and describe a way forward to achieve it. This end-state is universal, global access to interoperable public health information when it's needed, where it's needed. This vision mitigates the tension between two fundamental human rights: first, the right to privacy, confidentiality, and security of personal health information combined with the right of sovereign, national entities to the ownership and stewardship

  6. Bibliography of global change, 1992

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1993-01-01

    This bibliography lists 585 reports, articles, and other documents introduced in the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Database in 1992. The areas covered include global change, decision making, earth observation (from space), forecasting, global warming, policies, and trends.

  7. Individualization, globalization and health--about sustainable information technologies and the aim of medical informatics.

    PubMed

    Haux, Reinhold

    2006-12-01

    This paper discusses aspects of information technologies for health care, in particular on transinstitutional health information systems (HIS) and on health-enabling technologies, with some consequences for the aim of medical informatics. It is argued that with the extended range of health information systems and the perspective of having adequate transinstitutional HIS architectures, a substantial contribution can be made to better patient-centered care, with possibilities ranging from regional, national to even global care. It is also argued that in applying health-enabling technologies, using ubiquitous, pervasive computing environments and ambient intelligence approaches, we can expect that in addition care will become more specific and tailored for the individual, and that we can achieve better personalized care. In developing health care systems towards transinstitutional HIS and health-enabling technologies, the aim of medical informatics, to contribute to the progress of the sciences and to high-quality, efficient, and affordable health care that does justice to the individual and to society, may be extended to also contributing to self-determined and self-sufficient (autonomous) life. Reference is made and examples are given from the Yearbook of Medical Informatics of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and from the work of Professor Jochen Moehr.

  8. A qualitative content analysis of global health engagements in Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute's stability operations lessons learned and information management system.

    PubMed

    Nang, Roberto N; Monahan, Felicia; Diehl, Glendon B; French, Daniel

    2015-04-01

    Many institutions collect reports in databases to make important lessons-learned available to their members. The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences collaborated with the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute to conduct a descriptive and qualitative analysis of global health engagements (GHEs) contained in the Stability Operations Lessons Learned and Information Management System (SOLLIMS). This study used a summative qualitative content analysis approach involving six steps: (1) a comprehensive search; (2) two-stage reading and screening process to identify first-hand, health-related records; (3) qualitative and quantitative data analysis using MAXQDA, a software program; (4) a word cloud to illustrate word frequencies and interrelationships; (5) coding of individual themes and validation of the coding scheme; and (6) identification of relationships in the data and overarching lessons-learned. The individual codes with the most number of text segments coded included: planning, personnel, interorganizational coordination, communication/information sharing, and resources/supplies. When compared to the Department of Defense's (DoD's) evolving GHE principles and capabilities, the SOLLIMS coding scheme appeared to align well with the list of GHE capabilities developed by the Department of Defense Global Health Working Group. The results of this study will inform practitioners of global health and encourage additional qualitative analysis of other lessons-learned databases. Reprint & Copyright © 2015 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

  9. Accelerating global access to plant diversity information.

    PubMed

    Lughadha, Eimear Nic; Miller, Chuck

    2009-11-01

    Botanic gardens play key roles in the development and dissemination of plant information resources. Drivers for change have included progress in information technology, growing public expectations of electronic access and international conservation policy. Great advances have been made in the quantity, quality and accessibility of plant information in digital form and the extent to which information from multiple providers can be accessed through a single portal. However, significant challenges remain to be addressed in making botanic gardens resources maximally accessible and impactful, not least the overwhelming volume of material which still awaits digitisation. The year 2010 represents an opportunity for botanic gardens to showcase their collaborative achievements in delivery of electronic plant information and reinforce their relevance to pressing environmental issues.

  10. Shared decision-making: is it time to obtain informed consent before radiologic examinations utilizing ionizing radiation? Legal and ethical implications.

    PubMed

    Berlin, Leonard

    2014-03-01

    Concerns about the possibility of developing cancer due to diagnostic imaging examinations utilizing ionizing radiation exposure are increasing. Research studies of survivors of atomic bomb explosions, nuclear reactor accidents, and other unanticipated exposures to similar radiation have led to varying conclusions regarding the stochastic effects of radiation exposure. That high doses of ionizing radiation cause cancer in humans is generally accepted, but the question of whether diagnostic levels of radiation cause cancer continues to be hotly debated. It cannot be denied that overexposure to ionizing radiation beyond a certain threshold, which has not been exactly determined, does generate cancer. This causes a dilemma: what should patients be informed about the possibility that a CT or similar examination might cause cancer later in life? At present, there is no consensus in the radiology community as to whether informed consent must be obtained from a patient before the patient undergoes a CT or similar examination. The author analyzes whether there is a legal duty mandating radiologists to obtain such informed consent but also, irrespective of the law, whether there an ethical duty that compels radiologists to inform patients of potential adverse effects of ionizing radiation. Over the past decade, there has been a noticeable shift from a benevolent, paternalistic approach to medical care to an autonomy-based, shared-decision-making approach, whereby patient and physician work as partners in determining what is medically best for the patient. Radiologists should discuss the benefits and hazards of imaging with their patients. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  11. 13 CFR 107.620 - Requirements to obtain information from Portfolio Concerns.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... and must be in English. (a) Information for initial Financing decision. Before extending any Financing... intended use of financing proceeds), cash flow analyses and projections as are necessary to support your investment decision. The information submitted must be consistent with the size and type of the business and...

  12. Ground Signatures of EMIC Waves obtained From a 3D Global Wave Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rankin, R.; Sydorenko, D.; Zong, Q.; Zhang, L.

    2016-12-01

    EMIC waves generated in the inner magnetosphere are important drivers of radiation belt particle loss. Van Allen Probes and ground observations of EMIC waves suggest that localized magnetospheric sources inject waves that are guided along geomagnetic field lines and then reflected and refracted in the low altitude magnetosphere [Kim, E.-H., and J. R. Johnson (2016), Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 13-21, doi:10.1002/2015GL066978] before entering the ionosphere. The waves then spread horizontally within the F-region waveguide and propagate to the ground. To understand the observed properties of EMIC waves, a global 3D model of ULF waves in Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and neutral atmosphere has been developed. The simulation domain extends from Earth's surface to a spherical boundary a few tens of thousands of km in radius. The model uses spherical coordinates and incorporates an overset Yin-Yang grid that eliminates the singularity at the polar axis and improves uniformity of the grid in the polar areas [Kageyama, A., and T. Sato (2004), Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 5, Q09005, doi:10.1029/2004GC000734]. The geomagnetic field in the model is general, but is dipole in this study. The plasma is described as a set of electron and multiple species ion conducting fluids. Realistic 3D density profiles of various ion species as well as thermospheric parameters are provided by the Canadian Ionosphere Atmosphere Model (C-IAM) [Martynenko O.V. et al. (2014), J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 120, 51-61, doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2014.08.014]. The global ULF wave model is applied to study propagation of EMIC waves excited in the equatorial plane near L=7. Wave propagation along field lines, reflection and refraction in the zone of critical frequencies, and further propagation through the ionosphere to the ground are discussed.

  13. Using Neutron Spectroscopy to Obtain Quantitative Composition Data of Ganymede's Surface from the Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lawrence, D. J.; Maurice, S.; Patterson, G. W.; Hibbitts, C. A.

    2010-05-01

    Understanding the global composition of Ganymede's surface is a key goal of the Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) that is being jointly planned by NASA and ESA. Current plans for obtaining surface information with the Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter (JGO) use spectral imaging measurements. While spectral imaging can provide good mineralogy-related information, quantitative data about elemental abundances can often be hindered by non-composition variations due to surface effects (e.g., space weathering, grain effects, temperature, etc.). Orbital neutron and gamma-ray spectroscopy can provide quantitative composition information that is complementary to spectral imaging measurements, as has been demonstrated with similar instrumental combinations at the Moon, Mars, and Mercury. Neutron and gamma-ray measurements have successfully returned abundance information in a hydrogen-rich environment on Mars. In regards to neutrons and gamma-rays, there are many similarities between the Mars and Ganymede hydrogen-rich environments. In this study, we present results of neutron transport models, which show that quantitative composition information from Ganymede's surface can be obtained in a realistic mission scenario. Thermal and epithermal neutrons are jointly sensitive to the abundances of hydrogen and neutron absorbing elements, such as iron and titanium. These neutron measurements can discriminate between regions that are rich or depleted in neutron absorbing elements, even in the presence of large amounts of hydrogen. Details will be presented about how the neutron composition parameters can be used to meet high-level JGO science objectives, as well as an overview of a neutron spectrometer than can meet various mission and stringent environmental requirements.

  14. 29 CFR 1.3 - Obtaining and compiling wage rate information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ...) The Administrator will encourage the voluntary submission of wage rate data by contractors... rates paid to laborers and mechanics on various types of construction in the area. The Administrator may also obtain data from agencies on wage rates paid on construction projects under their jurisdiction...

  15. 29 CFR 1.3 - Obtaining and compiling wage rate information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ...) The Administrator will encourage the voluntary submission of wage rate data by contractors... rates paid to laborers and mechanics on various types of construction in the area. The Administrator may also obtain data from agencies on wage rates paid on construction projects under their jurisdiction...

  16. 29 CFR 1.3 - Obtaining and compiling wage rate information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ...) The Administrator will encourage the voluntary submission of wage rate data by contractors... rates paid to laborers and mechanics on various types of construction in the area. The Administrator may also obtain data from agencies on wage rates paid on construction projects under their jurisdiction...

  17. Drug pricing and reimbursement information management: processes and decision making in the global economy.

    PubMed

    Tsourougiannis, Dimitrios

    2017-01-01

    Background : Cost-containment initiatives are re-shaping the pharmaceutical business environment and affecting market access as well as pricing and reimbursement decisions. Effective price management procedures are too complex to accomplish manually. Prior to February 2013, price management within Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd was done manually using an Excel database. The system was labour intensive, slow to update, and prone to error. An innovative web-based pricing information management system was developed to address the shortcomings of the previous system. Development : A secure web-based system for submitting, reviewing and approving pricing requests was designed to: track all pricing applications and approval status; update approved pricing information automatically; provide fixed and customizable reports of pricing information; collect pricing and reimbursement rules from each country; validate pricing and reimbursement rules monthly. Several sequential phases of development emphasized planning, time schedules, target dates, budgets and implementation of the entire system. A test system was used to pilot the electronic (e)-pricing system with three affiliates (four users) in February 2013. Outcomes : The web-based system was introduced in March 2013, currently has about 227 active users globally and comprises more than 1000 presentations of 150 products. The overall benefits of switching from a manual to an e-pricing system were immediate and highly visible in terms of efficiency, transparency, reliability and compliance. Conclusions : The e-pricing system has improved the efficiency, reliability, compliance, transparency and ease of access to multinational drug pricing and approval information.

  18. Drug pricing and reimbursement information management: processes and decision making in the global economy

    PubMed Central

    Tsourougiannis, Dimitrios

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT Background: Cost-containment initiatives are re-shaping the pharmaceutical business environment and affecting market access as well as pricing and reimbursement decisions. Effective price management procedures are too complex to accomplish manually. Prior to February 2013, price management within Astellas Pharma Europe Ltd was done manually using an Excel database. The system was labour intensive, slow to update, and prone to error. An innovative web-based pricing information management system was developed to address the shortcomings of the previous system. Development: A secure web-based system for submitting, reviewing and approving pricing requests was designed to: track all pricing applications and approval status; update approved pricing information automatically; provide fixed and customizable reports of pricing information; collect pricing and reimbursement rules from each country; validate pricing and reimbursement rules monthly. Several sequential phases of development emphasized planning, time schedules, target dates, budgets and implementation of the entire system. A test system was used to pilot the electronic (e)-pricing system with three affiliates (four users) in February 2013. Outcomes: The web-based system was introduced in March 2013, currently has about 227 active users globally and comprises more than 1000 presentations of 150 products. The overall benefits of switching from a manual to an e-pricing system were immediate and highly visible in terms of efficiency, transparency, reliability and compliance. Conclusions: The e-pricing system has improved the efficiency, reliability, compliance, transparency and ease of access to multinational drug pricing and approval information. PMID:28740622

  19. Obtaining molecular and structural information from 13C-14N systems with 13C FIREMAT experiments.

    PubMed

    Strohmeier, Mark; Alderman, D W; Grant, David M

    2002-04-01

    The effect of dipolar coupling to 14N on 13C FIREMAT (five pi replicated magic angle turning) experiments is investigated. A method is developed for fitting the 13C FIREMAT FID employing the full theory to extract the 13C-14N dipolar and 13C chemical shift tensor information. The analysis requires prior knowledge of the electric field gradient (EFG) tensor at the 14N nucleus. In order to validate the method the analysis is done for the amino acids alpha-glycine, gamma-glycine, l-alanine, l-asparagine, and l-histidine on FIREMAT FIDs recorded at 13C frequencies of 50 and 100 MHz. The dipolar and chemical shift data obtained with this analysis are in very good agreement with the previous single-crystal 13C NMR results and neutron diffraction data on alpha-glycine, l-alanine, and l-asparagine. The values for gamma-glycine and l-histidine obtained with this new method are reported for the first time. The uncertainties in the EFG tensor on the resultant 13C chemical shift and dipolar tensor values are assessed. (c) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).

  20. The Global Asthma Network rationale and methods for Phase I global surveillance: prevalence, severity, management and risk factors.

    PubMed

    Ellwood, Philippa; Asher, M Innes; Billo, Nils E; Bissell, Karen; Chiang, Chen-Yuan; Ellwood, Eamon M; El-Sony, Asma; García-Marcos, Luis; Mallol, Javier; Marks, Guy B; Pearce, Neil E; Strachan, David P

    2017-01-01

    The Global Asthma Network (GAN), established in 2012, followed the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC). ISAAC Phase One involved over 700 000 adolescents and children from 156 centres in 56 countries; it found marked worldwide variation in symptom prevalence of asthma, rhinitis and eczema that was not explained by the current understanding of these diseases; ISAAC Phase Three involved over 1 187 496 adolescents and children (237 centres in 98 countries). It found that asthma symptom prevalence was increasing in many locations especially in low- and middle-income countries where severity was also high, and identified several environmental factors that required further investigation.GAN Phase I, described in this article, builds on the ISAAC findings by collecting further information on asthma, rhinitis and eczema prevalence, severity, diagnoses, asthma emergency room visits, hospital admissions, management and use of asthma essential medicines. The subjects will be the same age groups as ISAAC, and their parents. In this first global monitoring of asthma in children and adults since 2003, further evidence will be obtained to understand asthma, management practices and risk factors, leading to further recognition that asthma is an important non-communicable disease and to reduce its global burden. Copyright ©ERS 2017.

  1. Emergence of Informal Educative Space out of an Anonymous Online Bulletin Board in Korea during the Global Economic Crisis

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kang, Dae Joong; Choi, Seon Joo; Lee, SeungHyeop

    2013-01-01

    This study aimed to understand how people learn and teach informally in an anonymous online bulletin board, the primary purpose of which is not learning and teaching. We conducted a qualitative analysis of comments and replies tagged to the most popular postings of an anonymous online bulletin board, during the global economic crisis in 2008-2009.…

  2. Insights into the dynamics of planetary interiors obtained through the study of global distribution of volcanoes I: Empirical calibration on Earth

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cañon-Tapia, Edgardo; Mendoza-Borunda, Ramón

    2014-06-01

    The distribution of volcanic features is ultimately controlled by processes taking place beneath the surface of a planet. For this reason, characterization of volcano distribution at a global scale can be used to obtain insights concerning dynamic aspects of planetary interiors. Until present, studies of this type have focused on volcanic features of a specific type, or have concentrated on relatively small regions. In this paper, (the first of a series of three papers) we describe the distribution of volcanic features observed over the entire surface of the Earth, combining an extensive database of submarine and subaerial volcanoes. The analysis is based on spatial density contours obtained with the Fisher kernel. Based on an empirical approach that makes no a priori assumptions concerning the number of modes that should characterize the density distribution of volcanism we identified the most significant modes. Using those modes as a base, the relevant distance for the formation of clusters of volcanoes is constrained to be on the order of 100 to 200 km. In addition, it is noted that the most significant modes lead to the identification of clusters that outline the most important tectonic margins on Earth without the need of making any ad hoc assumptions. Consequently, we suggest that this method has the potential of yielding insights about the probable occurrence of tectonic features within other planets.

  3. Measurement of Global Precipitation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Flaming, Gilbert Mark

    2004-01-01

    The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Program is an international cooperative effort whose objectives are to (a) obtain increased understanding of rainfall processes, and (b) make frequent rainfall measurements on a global basis. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States and the Japanese Aviation and Exploration Agency (JAXA) have entered into a cooperative agreement for the formulation and development of GPM. This agreement is a continuation of the partnership that developed the highly successful Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) that was launched in November 1997; this mission continues to provide valuable scientific and meteorological information on rainfall and the associated processes. International collaboration on GPM from other space agencies has been solicited, and discussions regarding their participation are currently in progress. NASA has taken lead responsibility for the planning and formulation of GPM, Key elements of the Program to be provided by NASA include a Core satellite bus instrumented with a multi-channel microwave radiometer, a Ground Validation System and a ground-based Precipitation Processing System (PPS). JAXA will provide a Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar for installation on the Core satellite and launch services. Other United States agencies and international partners may participate in a number of ways, such as providing rainfall measurements obtained from their own national space-borne platforms, providing local rainfall measurements to support the ground validation activities, or providing hardware or launch services for GPM constellation spacecraft. This paper will present an overview of the current planning for the GPM Program, and discuss in more detail the status of the lead author's primary responsibility, development and acquisition of the GPM Microwave Imager.

  4. SoilGrids250m: Global gridded soil information based on machine learning

    PubMed Central

    Mendes de Jesus, Jorge; Heuvelink, Gerard B. M.; Ruiperez Gonzalez, Maria; Kilibarda, Milan; Blagotić, Aleksandar; Shangguan, Wei; Wright, Marvin N.; Geng, Xiaoyuan; Bauer-Marschallinger, Bernhard; Guevara, Mario Antonio; Vargas, Rodrigo; MacMillan, Robert A.; Batjes, Niels H.; Leenaars, Johan G. B.; Ribeiro, Eloi; Wheeler, Ichsani; Mantel, Stephan; Kempen, Bas

    2017-01-01

    methods for multiscale merging of SoilGrids predictions with local and/or national gridded soil products (e.g. up to 50 m spatial resolution) so that increasingly more accurate, complete and consistent global soil information can be produced. SoilGrids are available under the Open Data Base License. PMID:28207752

  5. SoilGrids250m: Global gridded soil information based on machine learning.

    PubMed

    Hengl, Tomislav; Mendes de Jesus, Jorge; Heuvelink, Gerard B M; Ruiperez Gonzalez, Maria; Kilibarda, Milan; Blagotić, Aleksandar; Shangguan, Wei; Wright, Marvin N; Geng, Xiaoyuan; Bauer-Marschallinger, Bernhard; Guevara, Mario Antonio; Vargas, Rodrigo; MacMillan, Robert A; Batjes, Niels H; Leenaars, Johan G B; Ribeiro, Eloi; Wheeler, Ichsani; Mantel, Stephan; Kempen, Bas

    2017-01-01

    for multiscale merging of SoilGrids predictions with local and/or national gridded soil products (e.g. up to 50 m spatial resolution) so that increasingly more accurate, complete and consistent global soil information can be produced. SoilGrids are available under the Open Data Base License.

  6. Preferred health resources and use of social media to obtain health and depression information by adolescent mothers.

    PubMed

    Logsdon, M Cynthia; Bennett, Gary; Crutzen, Rik; Martin, LuAnn; Eckert, Diane; Robertson, Ashley; Myers, John; Tomasulo, Roselyn; Gregg, Jennifer; Barone, Michael; Lynch, Tania; Flamini, Laura

    2014-11-01

    Little is known about how adolescent mothers use social media and the Internet, especially to access health information. In this cross-sectional, descriptive study, adolescent mothers were recruited from an academic medical center after the birth of their child (n = 94) or from a state-funded, home visitation program during the first year after birth (n = 91). They completed the Pew Internet Survey: 37 questions related to use of social media and Internet, particularly in regard to obtaining health information. All adolescent mothers used a computer and almost all went online. Most accessed the Internet by cell phone (67.4%) and used social media. The health topics searched most frequently were pregnancy/birth control (85.8%), sexually transmitted diseases (n = 134, 72.6%) and HIV (66.3%). Response to survey questions differed between the two groups (adolescent mothers surveyed after birth from academic medical center and adolescent mothers surveyed in the first postpartum year in the community). Adolescent mothers spend significant time on the Internet including searching for health information. Cell phones are their preferred methods for accessing the Internet, and they use social media. Thus, social media and the Internet are potentially feasible and acceptable vehicles to deliver health interventions to adolescent mothers. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  7. SU-F-E-14: Global Radiation Oncology Education and Training in Medical Physics Powered by Information and Communication Technologies

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

    Ngwa, W; University Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA; Sajo, E

    Purpose: Recent publications have highlighted the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to catalyze collaborations in cancer care, research and education in global radiation oncology. This work reports on the use of ICTs for global Medical Physics education and training across three countries: USA, Tanzania and Kuwait Methods: An online education platform was established by Radiation Oncology Faculty from Harvard Medical School, and the University of Pennsylvania with integrated Medical Physics Course modules accessible to trainees in Tanzania via partnership with the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, and the Ocean Road Cancer Institute. The course modules incorporatedmore » lectures covering Radiation Therapy Physics with videos, discussion board, assessments and grade center. Faculty at Harvard Medical School and the University of Massachusetts Lowell also employed weekly Skype meetings to train/mentor three graduate students, living out-of-state and in Kuwait for up to 9 research credits per semester for over two semesters towards obtaining their graduate degrees Results: Students were able to successfully access the Medical Physics course modules and participate in learning activities, online discussion boards, and assessments. Other instructors could also access/co-teach the course modules from USA and Tanzania. Meanwhile all three graduate students with remote training via Skype and email made major progress in their graduate training with each one of them submitting their research results as abstracts to be presented at the 2016 AAPM conference. One student has also published her work already and all three are developing these abstracts for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Conclusion: Altogether, this work highlights concrete examples/model on how ICTs can be used for capacity building in Medical Physics across continents, for both education and research training needed for Masters/PhD degrees. The developed

  8. Assessing global resource utilization efficiency in the industrial sector.

    PubMed

    Rosen, Marc A

    2013-09-01

    Designing efficient energy systems, which also meet economic, environmental and other objectives and constraints, is a significant challenge. In a world with finite natural resources and large energy demands, it is important to understand not just actual efficiencies, but also limits to efficiency, as the latter identify margins for efficiency improvement. Energy analysis alone is inadequate, e.g., it yields energy efficiencies that do not provide limits to efficiency. To obtain meaningful and useful efficiencies for energy systems, and to clarify losses, exergy analysis is a beneficial and useful tool. Here, the global industrial sector and industries within it are assessed by using energy and exergy methods. The objective is to improve the understanding of the efficiency of global resource use in the industrial sector and, with this information, to facilitate the development, prioritization and ultimate implementation of rational improvement options. Global energy and exergy flow diagrams for the industrial sector are developed and overall efficiencies for the global industrial sector evaluated as 51% based on energy and 30% based on exergy. Consequently, exergy analysis indicates a less efficient picture of energy use in the global industrial sector than does energy analysis. A larger margin for improvement exists from an exergy perspective, compared to the overly optimistic margin indicated by energy. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. The roles of information technology in global chain supply: a multiple case study of multinational companies of China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    He, Mao; Duan, Wanchun

    2007-12-01

    Nowadays many Chinese companies have being becoming more and more international. Therefore, these Chinese companies have to face global supply chains rather than the former domestic ones. The use of information technology (IT) is considered a prerequisite for the effective control of today's complex global supply chains. Based on empirical data from 10 multinational companies of China, this paper presents a classification of the ways in which companies use IT in SCM, and examines the drivers for these different utilization types. According to the findings of this research, the purposes of using of IT in SCM can be divided into 1) transaction processing, 2) supply chain planning and collaboration, and 3) order tracking and delivery coordination. The findings further suggest that the drivers between these three uses of IT in SCM differ.

  10. Factors Associated With Exposure to Antismoking Information Among Adults in Vietnam, Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 2010

    PubMed Central

    Giang, Kim Bao; Nga, Pham Quynh; Hai, Phan Thi; Quan, Nguyen The; Tong, Van T.; Xuan, Le Thi Thanh; Hsia, Jason

    2013-01-01

    Introduction The media play a critical role in tobacco control. Knowledge about the exposure of a population to antismoking information can provide information for planning communication activities in tobacco control. We examined exposure to antismoking information associated with socioeconomic and demographic factors among adults (≥15 years) in Vietnam. Methods The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) is a nationally representative household survey of noninstitutionalized men and women aged 15 years or older and was conducted in Vietnam in 2010 (N = 9,925). We used GATS data on exposure to sources of antismoking information and analyzed associations among socioeconomic and demographic groups. Results An estimated 91.6% of the adult population was exposed to at least 1 source of antismoking information, and the mean number of sources of exposure was 3.7. Compared with their counterparts, respondents who were older, had higher education levels, higher economic status, and higher knowledge levels about the health consequences of smoking were more likely to be exposed to any source of antismoking information and to more informational sources. The most common source of exposure was television (85.9%). Respondents of higher social class (education, occupation, wealth) had more exposure through modern media sources (television), and respondents of lower social class were exposed to more traditional sources such as radio or loudspeakers. Conclusion Exposure to at least 1 source of antismoking information is high in Vietnam, and the number and type of source varied by sociodemographic group. Use of multiple communication channels is recommended to reinforce antismoking messages and to reach different groups in the population. PMID:24028833

  11. Globalization of healthcare.

    PubMed

    2012-05-01

    Globalization-the increasing transnational circulation of money, goods, people, ideas, and information worldwide-is generally recognized as one of the most powerful forces shaping our current and future history. How is it affecting healthcare, and in that context, what is the purpose and significance of Global Advances in Health and Medicine (GAHM), publisher of this journal? Our goal is not homogenization but rather to provide an opportunity for integration, convergence, and collaboration across cultures. By respecting and conserving the richness and diversity of each new medicine, we embrace globalization. Globalization is of course not new; it began in the Renaissance and particularly with the 15th- and 16th-century voyages of exploration by Columbus, Magellan, and others. Since the beginning of time, there have been interactions and exchanges among different peoples and cultures. However, the current magnitude of globalization is unprecedented and yet still expanding rapidly.

  12. Global Warming And Meltwater

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bratu, S.

    2012-04-01

    In order to find new approaches and new ideas for my students to appreciate the importance of science in their daily life, I proposed a theme for them to debate. They had to search for global warming information and illustrations in the media, and discuss the articles they found in the classroom. This task inspired them to search for new information about this important and timely theme in science. I informed my students that all the best information about global warming and meltwater they found would be used in a poster that would help us to update the knowledge base of the Physics laboratory. I guided them to choose the most eloquent images and significant information. Searching and working to create this poster, the students arrived to better appreciate the importance of science in their daily life and to critically evaluate scientific information transmitted via the media. In the poster we created, one can find images, photos and diagrams and some interesting information: Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected evolution. In the last 100 years, the Earth's average surface temperature increased by about 0.8 °C with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades. Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and scientists are more than 90% certain most of it is caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases produced by human activities such as deforestation and burning fossil fuel. They indicate that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 1.1 to 2.9 °C for the lowest emissions scenario and 2.4 to 6.4 °C for the highest predictions. An increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, and potentially result in expansion of subtropical deserts. Warming is expected to be strongest in the Arctic and would be associated with continuing decrease of

  13. The role of new information technology meeting the global need and gap of education in pediatric surgery.

    PubMed

    Ure, Benno; Zoeller, Christoph; Lacher, Martin

    2015-06-01

    Traditionally, pediatric surgical education consisted of exposure to patients, textbooks, lectures, team-based education, congresses, and workshops. Over the last decades, however, new information technology (IT) and the internet revolutionized the sharing of information and communication. IT has become relevant in particular for the younger generation of pediatric surgeons. Today, gaps in children's health and the quality of pediatric surgical education persist between countries and regions. Advances in health care are not shared equitably. The use of IT for resource libraries, teleconferences, virtual symposiums, and telementoring has great potential in closing this gap and meeting the global needs for pediatric surgical education. This article focuses on the potential role of IT in this respect. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Global surveillance for chemical incidents of international public health concern.

    PubMed Central

    Olowokure, B.; Pooransingh, S.; Tempowski, J.; Palmer, S.; Meredith, T.

    2005-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: In December 2001, an expert consultation convened by WHO identified strengthening national and global chemical incident preparedness and response as a priority. WHO is working towards this objective by developing a surveillance and response system for chemical incidents. This report describes the frequency, nature and geographical location of acute chemical incidents of potential international concern from August 2002 to December 2003. METHODS: Acute chemical incidents were actively identified through several informal (e.g. Internet-based resources) and formal (e.g. various networks of organizations) sources and assessed against criteria for public health emergencies of international concern using the then proposed revised International Health Regulations (IHR). WHO regional and country offices were contacted to obtain additional information regarding identified incidents. FINDINGS: Altogether, 35 chemical incidents from 26 countries met one or more of the IHR criteria. The WHO European Region accounted for 43% (15/35) of reports. The WHO Regions for Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific each accounted for 14% (5/35); South-East Asia and the Americas accounted for 9% (3/35) and 6% (2/35), respectively. Twenty-three (66%) events were identified within 24 hours of their occurrence. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge this is the first global surveillance system for chemical incidents of potential international concern. Limitations such as geographical and language bias associated with the current system are being addressed. Nevertheless, the system has shown that it can provide early detection of important events, as well as information on the magnitude and geographical distribution of such incidents. It can therefore contribute to improving global public health preparedness. PMID:16462985

  15. Information Communication Technology, State building, and Globalization in the 21st Century: Regional Frameworks for Emerging State Assistance

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2008-12-01

    globalization and the nation-state is closely linked to these multinational corporations and their pursuit for optimal business arrangements based on...serves as an indicator based on societal shifts from exclusivity to information access and presents the depth of challenge for governance to properly...of stability based upon the applied data sets. This correlation appears to have no relationship to the type of political system in any particular

  16. The Effect of New Model PREPARED on Obtaining Informed Consent Skill in Midwifery Students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences

    PubMed Central

    Farajkhoda, Tahmineh; Bokaie, Mahshid; Abbasi, Mahmoud; NajafiHedeshi, Saeedeh; Alavi, Zahra; Rahimdel, Mahin

    2017-01-01

    Background: Professional ethics culture should be taught to students appropriately. Studies have shown that midwifery students are not entirely familiar with the skill of obtaining informed consent. Using a new and applicable model to teach this skill to midwifery students is necessary. This study was conducted to determine the effect of a new standard model, PREPARED, on the skill of obtaining informed consent in midwifery students of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: This interventional study was conducted on 37 5th semester midwifery students through a census method. After determining psychometric indices, in two phases with a 4-week interval (before and after the training), the PREPARED checklist was completed by the professors of the research team in the presence of students in the delivery room while they were performing midwifery care considering their compliance to the checklist. Descriptive statistics paired t-test were used for data analysis. Results: The lowest mean score before the training belonged to alternative methods (1.00) and treatment expenses (1.00). After the training, treatment plan had the highest mean score (3.54 (0.69)). The mean and standard deviation of scores before and after training the students were 9.12 (2.00) and 30.6824 (5.25), respectively. Based on the results of the paired t-test (P = 0.001), the difference was statistically significant. Conclusion: Results showed that the implementation of the new model of PREPARED would increase the skill of obtaining informed consent in midwifery students and could be applied for educating students of other medical majors in Iran. PMID:28904537

  17. Implications of MOLA Global Roughness, Statistics, and Topography

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Aharonson, O.; Zuber, M. T.; Neumann, G. A.

    1999-01-01

    New insights are emerging as the ongoing high-quality measurements of the Martian surface topography by Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on board the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft increase in coverage, resolution, and diversity. For the first time, a global characterization of the statistical properties of topography is possible. The data were collected during the aerobreaking hiatus, science phasing, and mapping orbits of MGS, and have a resolution of 300-400 m along track, a range resolution of 37.5 cm, a range precision of 1-10 m for surface slopes up to 30 deg., and an absolute accuracy of topography of 13 m. The spacecraft's orbit inclination dictates that nadir observations have latitude coverage of about 87.1S to 87.1N; the addition of observations obtained during a period of off-nadir pointing over the north pole extended coverage to 90N. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

  18. Comparison of Different Global Information Sources Used in Surface Radiative Flux Calculation: Radiative Properties of the Surface

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zhang, Yuanchong; Rossow, William B.; Stackhouse, Paul W., Jr.

    2007-01-01

    Direct estimates of surface radiative fluxes that resolve regional and weather-scale variabilty over the whole globe with reasonable accuracy have only become possible with the advent of extensive global, mostly satellite, datasets within the past couple of decades. The accuracy of these fluxes, estimated to be about 10-15 W per square meter is largely limited by the accuracy of the input datasets. The leading uncertainties in the surface fluxes are no longer predominantly induced by clouds but are now as much associated with uncertainties in the surface and near-surface atmospheric properties. This study presents a fuller, more quantitative evaluation of the uncertainties for the surface albedo and emissivity and surface skin temperatures by comparing the main available global datasets from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer product, the NASA Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Surface Radiation Budget project, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP), the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique, NOAA/NASA Pathfinder Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer project, NOAA Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature Analysis and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Image project. The datasets are, in practice, treated as an ensemble of realizations of the actual climate such that their differences represent an estimate of the uncertainty in their measurements because we do not possess global truth datasets for these quantities. The results are globally representative and may be taken as a generalization of our previous ISCCP-based uncertainty estimates for the input datasets. Surface properties have the primary role in determining the surface upward shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) flux. From this study, the following conclusions are obtained

  19. Global Collaborative STEM Education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meabh Kelly, Susan; Smith, Walter

    2016-04-01

    Global Collaborative STEM Education, as the name suggests, simultaneously supports two sets of knowledge and skills. The first set is STEM -- science, technology, engineering and math. The other set of content knowledge and skills is that of global collaboration. Successful global partnerships require awareness of one's own culture, the biases embedded within that culture, as well as developing awareness of the collaborators' culture. Workforce skills fostered include open-mindedness, perseverance when faced with obstacles, and resourceful use of technological "bridges" to facilitate and sustain communication. In respect for the 2016 GIFT Workshop focus, Global Collaborative STEM Education projects dedicated to astronomy research will be presented. The projects represent different benchmarks within the Global Collaborative STEM Education continuum, culminating in an astronomy research experience that fully reflects how the global STEM workforce collaborates. To facilitate wider engagement in Global Collaborative STEM Education, project summaries, classroom resources and contact information for established international collaborative astronomy research projects will be disseminated.

  20. Global patterns of current and future road infrastructure

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meijer, Johan R.; Huijbregts, Mark A. J.; Schotten, Kees C. G. J.; Schipper, Aafke M.

    2018-06-01

    Georeferenced information on road infrastructure is essential for spatial planning, socio-economic assessments and environmental impact analyses. Yet current global road maps are typically outdated or characterized by spatial bias in coverage. In the Global Roads Inventory Project we gathered, harmonized and integrated nearly 60 geospatial datasets on road infrastructure into a global roads dataset. The resulting dataset covers 222 countries and includes over 21 million km of roads, which is two to three times the total length in the currently best available country-based global roads datasets. We then related total road length per country to country area, population density, GDP and OECD membership, resulting in a regression model with adjusted R 2 of 0.90, and found that that the highest road densities are associated with densely populated and wealthier countries. Applying our regression model to future population densities and GDP estimates from the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios, we obtained a tentative estimate of 3.0–4.7 million km additional road length for the year 2050. Large increases in road length were projected for developing nations in some of the world’s last remaining wilderness areas, such as the Amazon, the Congo basin and New Guinea. This highlights the need for accurate spatial road datasets to underpin strategic spatial planning in order to reduce the impacts of roads in remaining pristine ecosystems.

  1. A fuelwood plantation site selection procedure using geographic information system technology: A case study in support of the NASA Global Habitability Program

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Roller, N. E. G.; Colwell, J. E.; Sellman, A. N.

    1985-01-01

    A study undertaken in support of NASA's Global Habitability Program is described. A demonstration of geographic information system (GIS) technology for site evaluation and selection is given. The objective was to locate potential fuelwood plantations within a 50 km radius of Nairobi, Kenya. A model was developed to evaluate site potential based on capability and suitability criteria and implemented using the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan's geographic information system.

  2. EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS). [landsat satellites

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1992-01-01

    In the past decade, science and technology have reached levels that permit assessments of global environmental change. Scientific success in understanding global environmental change depends on integration and management of numerous data sources. The Global Change Data and Information System (GCDIS) must provide for the management of data, information dissemination, and technology transfer. The Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) is NASA's portion of this global change information system.

  3. Global ethics and principlism.

    PubMed

    Gordon, John-Stewart

    2011-09-01

    This article examines the special relation between common morality and particular moralities in the four-principles approach and its use for global ethics. It is argued that the special dialectical relation between common morality and particular moralities is the key to bridging the gap between ethical universalism and relativism. The four-principles approach is a good model for a global bioethics by virtue of its ability to mediate successfully between universal demands and cultural diversity. The principle of autonomy (i.e., the idea of individual informed consent), however, does need to be revised so as to make it compatible with alternatives such as family- or community-informed consent. The upshot is that the contribution of the four-principles approach to global ethics lies in the so-called dialectical process and its power to deal with cross-cultural issues against the background of universal demands by joining them together.

  4. Global Data Toolset (GDT)

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Cress, Jill J.; Riegle, Jodi L.

    2007-01-01

    According to the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) approximately 60 percent of the data contained in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) has missing or incomplete boundary information. As a result, global analyses based on the WDPA can be inaccurate, and professionals responsible for natural resource planning and priority setting must rely on incomplete geospatial data sets. To begin to address this problem the World Data Center for Biodiversity and Ecology, in cooperation with the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center (RMGSC), the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), the Global Earth Observation System, and the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) sponsored a Protected Area (PA) workshop in Asuncion, Paraguay, in November 2007. The primary goal of this workshop was to train representatives from eight South American countries on the use of the Global Data Toolset (GDT) for reviewing and editing PA data. Use of the GDT will allow PA experts to compare their national data to other data sets, including non-governmental organization (NGO) and WCMC data, in order to highlight inaccuracies or gaps in the data, and then to apply any needed edits, especially in the delineation of the PA boundaries. In addition, familiarizing the participants with the web-enabled GDT will allow them to maintain and improve their data after the workshop. Once data edits have been completed the GDT will also allow the country authorities to perform any required review and validation processing. Once validated, the data can be used to update the global WDPA and IABIN databases, which will enhance analysis on global and regional levels.

  5. The predictive information obtained by testing multiple software versions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lee, Larry D.

    1987-01-01

    Multiversion programming is a redundancy approach to developing highly reliable software. In applications of this method, two or more versions of a program are developed independently by different programmers and the versions are combined to form a redundant system. One variation of this approach consists of developing a set of n program versions and testing the versions to predict the failure probability of a particular program or a system formed from a subset of the programs. The precision that might be obtained, and also the effect of programmer variability if predictions are made over repetitions of the process of generating different program versions, are examined.

  6. After Globalization: The Emerging Politics of Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Marginson, Simon

    1998-01-01

    Globalization, referring to the formation of world systems, embraces finance and trade; communications and information technologies; migration and tourism; global societies; linguistic, cultural, and ideological convergence; and signs and images. Globalization does not negate the nation-state, but it changes its circumstances and makes education…

  7. Global Mosaics of Pluto and Charon

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-07-14

    Global mosaics of Pluto and Charon projected at 300 meters (985 feet) per pixel that have been assembled from most of the highest resolution images obtained by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and the Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) onboard New Horizons. Transparent, colorized stereo topography data generated for the encounter hemispheres of Pluto and Charon have been overlain on the mosaics. Terrain south of about 30°S on Pluto and Charon was in darkness leading up to and during the flyby, so is shown in black. "S" and "T" respectively indicate Sputnik Planitia and Tartarus Dorsa on Pluto, and "C" indicates Caleuche Chasma on Charon. All feature names on Pluto and Charon are informal. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21862

  8. The Global Emergency Observation and Warning System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bukley, Angelia P.; Mulqueen, John A.

    1994-01-01

    Based on an extensive characterization of natural hazards, and an evaluation of their impacts on humanity, a set of functional technical requirements for a global warning and relief system was developed. Since no technological breakthroughs are required to implement a global system capable of performing the functions required to provide sufficient information for prevention, preparedness, warning, and relief from natural disaster effects, a system is proposed which would combine the elements of remote sensing, data processing, information distribution, and communications support on a global scale for disaster mitigation.

  9. Potential for using regional and global datasets for national scale ecosystem service modelling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maxwell, Deborah; Jackson, Bethanna

    2016-04-01

    Ecosystem service models are increasingly being used by planners and policy makers to inform policy development and decisions about national-level resource management. Such models allow ecosystem services to be mapped and quantified, and subsequent changes to these services to be identified and monitored. In some cases, the impact of small scale changes can be modelled at a national scale, providing more detailed information to decision makers about where to best focus investment and management interventions that could address these issues, while moving toward national goals and/or targets. National scale modelling often uses national (or local) data (for example, soils, landcover and topographical information) as input. However, there are some places where fine resolution and/or high quality national datasets cannot be easily obtained, or do not even exist. In the absence of such detailed information, regional or global datasets could be used as input to such models. There are questions, however, about the usefulness of these coarser resolution datasets and the extent to which inaccuracies in this data may degrade predictions of existing and potential ecosystem service provision and subsequent decision making. Using LUCI (the Land Utilisation and Capability Indicator) as an example predictive model, we examine how the reliability of predictions change when national datasets of soil, landcover and topography are substituted with coarser scale regional and global datasets. We specifically look at how LUCI's predictions of where water services, such as flood risk, flood mitigation, erosion and water quality, change when national data inputs are replaced by regional and global datasets. Using the Conwy catchment, Wales, as a case study, the land cover products compared are the UK's Land Cover Map (2007), the European CORINE land cover map and the ESA global land cover map. Soils products include the National Soil Map of England and Wales (NatMap) and the European

  10. A new analytical method for the classification of time-location data obtained from the global positioning system (GPS).

    PubMed

    Kim, Taehyun; Lee, Kiyoung; Yang, Wonho; Yu, Seung Do

    2012-08-01

    Although the global positioning system (GPS) has been suggested as an alternative way to determine time-location patterns, its use has been limited. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new analytical method of classifying time-location data obtained by GPS. A field technician carried a GPS device while simulating various scripted activities and recorded all movements by the second in an activity diary. The GPS device recorded geological data once every 15 s. The daily monitoring was repeated 18 times. The time-location data obtained by the GPS were compared with the activity diary to determine selection criteria for the classification of the GPS data. The GPS data were classified into four microenvironments (residential indoors, other indoors, transit, and walking outdoors); the selection criteria used were used number of satellites (used-NSAT), speed, and distance from residence. The GPS data were classified as indoors when the used-NSAT was below 9. Data classified as indoors were further classified as residential indoors when the distance from the residence was less than 40 m; otherwise, they were classified as other indoors. Data classified as outdoors were further classified as being in transit when the speed exceeded 2.5 m s(-1); otherwise, they were classified as walking outdoors. The average simple percentage agreement between the time-location classifications and the activity diary was 84.3 ± 12.4%, and the kappa coefficient was 0.71. The average differences between the time diary and the GPS results were 1.6 ± 2.3 h for the time spent in residential indoors, 0.9 ± 1.7 h for the time spent in other indoors, 0.4 ± 0.4 h for the time spent in transit, and 0.8 ± 0.5 h for the time spent walking outdoors. This method can be used to determine time-activity patterns in exposure-science studies.

  11. Globalization and its methodological discontents: Contextualizing globalization through the study of HIV/AIDS

    PubMed Central

    2011-01-01

    There remains considerable discontent between globalization scholars about how to conceptualize its meaning and in regards to epistemological and methodological questions concerning how we can come to understand how these processes ultimately operate, intersect and transform our lives. This article argues that to better understand what globalization is and how it affects issues such as global health, we must take a differentiating approach, which focuses on how the multiple processes of globalization are encountered and informed by different social groups and with how these encounters are experienced within particular contexts. The article examines the heuristic properties of qualitative field research as a means to help better understand how the intersections of globalization are manifested within particular locations. To do so, the article focuses on three recent case studies conducted on globalization and HIV/AIDS and explores how these cases can help us to understand the contextual permutations involved within the processes of globalization. PMID:21861895

  12. On Obtaining Estimates of the Fraction of Missing Information from Full Information Maximum Likelihood

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Savalei, Victoria; Rhemtulla, Mijke

    2012-01-01

    Fraction of missing information [lambda][subscript j] is a useful measure of the impact of missing data on the quality of estimation of a particular parameter. This measure can be computed for all parameters in the model, and it communicates the relative loss of efficiency in the estimation of a particular parameter due to missing data. It has…

  13. 48 CFR 9.505-4 - Obtaining access to proprietary information.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-10-01

    ... REGULATION ACQUISITION PLANNING CONTRACTOR QUALIFICATIONS Organizational and Consultant Conflicts of Interest... use or (2) available to the Government or contractor from other sources without restriction. (b) A... source selection information by acquiring the services of marketing consultants which, if used in...

  14. Digital Citizenship within Global Contexts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Searson, Michael; Hancock, Marsali; Soheil, Nusrat; Shepherd, Gregory

    2015-01-01

    EduSummIT 2013 featured a working group that examined digital citizenship within a global context. Group members recognized that, given today's international, regional, political, and social dynamics, the notion of "global" might be more aspirational than practical. The development of informed policies and practices serving and involving…

  15. More Ways to Obtain Publications | NREL

    Science.gov Websites

    More Ways to Obtain Publications More Ways to Obtain Publications Through the NREL Library or one information products. The NREL Library The library is open M-F, 8:00 a.m 5:00 p.m. Email or call 303-275-4215 Loan Service. Our OCLC symbol is SOE. Search the NREL Library The NREL Library has extensive resources

  16. Swiss Re Global Flood Hazard Zones: Know your flood risk

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vinukollu, R. K.; Castaldi, A.; Mehlhorn, J.

    2012-12-01

    Floods, among all natural disasters, have a great damage potential. On a global basis, there is strong evidence of increase in the number of people affected and economic losses due to floods. For example, global insured flood losses have increased by 12% every year since 1970 and this is expected to further increase with growing exposure in the high risk areas close to rivers and coastlines. Recently, the insurance industry has been surprised by the large extent of losses, because most countries lack reliable hazard information. One example has been the 2011 Thailand floods where millions of people were affected and the total economic losses were 30 billion USD. In order to assess the flood risk across different regions and countries, the flood team at Swiss Re based on a Geomorphologic Regression approach, developed in house and patented, produced global maps of flood zones. Input data for the study was obtained from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) elevation data, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Digital Elevation Model (GDEM) and HydroSHEDS. The underlying assumptions of the approach are that naturally flowing rivers shape their channel and flood plain according to basin inherent forces and characteristics and that the flood water extent strongly depends on the shape of the flood plain. On the basis of the catchment characteristics, the model finally calculates the probability of a location to be flooded or not for a defined return period, which in the current study was set to 100 years. The data is produced at a 90-m resolution for latitudes 60S to 60N. This global product is now used in the insurance industry to inspect, inform and/or insure the flood risk across the world.

  17. Mixed kernel function support vector regression for global sensitivity analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng, Kai; Lu, Zhenzhou; Wei, Yuhao; Shi, Yan; Zhou, Yicheng

    2017-11-01

    Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) plays an important role in exploring the respective effects of input variables on an assigned output response. Amongst the wide sensitivity analyses in literature, the Sobol indices have attracted much attention since they can provide accurate information for most models. In this paper, a mixed kernel function (MKF) based support vector regression (SVR) model is employed to evaluate the Sobol indices at low computational cost. By the proposed derivation, the estimation of the Sobol indices can be obtained by post-processing the coefficients of the SVR meta-model. The MKF is constituted by the orthogonal polynomials kernel function and Gaussian radial basis kernel function, thus the MKF possesses both the global characteristic advantage of the polynomials kernel function and the local characteristic advantage of the Gaussian radial basis kernel function. The proposed approach is suitable for high-dimensional and non-linear problems. Performance of the proposed approach is validated by various analytical functions and compared with the popular polynomial chaos expansion (PCE). Results demonstrate that the proposed approach is an efficient method for global sensitivity analysis.

  18. Super-global distortion correction for a rotational C-arm x-ray image intensifier.

    PubMed

    Liu, R R; Rudin, S; Bednarek, D R

    1999-09-01

    Image intensifier (II) distortion changes as a function of C-arm rotation angle because of changes in the orientation of the II with the earth's or other stray magnetic fields. For cone-beam computed tomography (CT), distortion correction for all angles is essential. The new super-global distortion correction consists of a model to continuously correct II distortion not only at each location in the image but for every rotational angle of the C arm. Calibration bead images were acquired with a standard C arm in 9 in. II mode. The super-global (SG) model is obtained from the single-plane global correction of the selected calibration images with given sampling angle interval. The fifth-order single-plane global corrections yielded a residual rms error of 0.20 pixels, while the SG model yielded a rms error of 0.21 pixels, a negligibly small difference. We evaluated the accuracy dependence of the SG model on various factors, such as the single-plane global fitting order, SG order, and angular sampling interval. We found that a good SG model can be obtained using a sixth-order SG polynomial fit based on the fifth-order single-plane global correction, and that a 10 degrees sampling interval was sufficient. Thus, the SG model saves processing resources and storage space. The residual errors from the mechanical errors of the x-ray system were also investigated, and found comparable with the SG residual error. Additionally, a single-plane global correction was done in the cylindrical coordinate system, and physical information about pincushion distortion and S distortion were observed and analyzed; however, this method is not recommended due to a lack of calculational efficiency. In conclusion, the SG model provides an accurate, fast, and simple correction for rotational C-arm images, which may be used for cone-beam CT.

  19. Global Warming?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Eichman, Julia Christensen; Brown, Jeff A.

    1994-01-01

    Presents information and data on an experiment designed to test whether different atmosphere compositions are affected by light and temperature during both cooling and heating. Although flawed, the experiment should help students appreciate the difficulties that researchers face when trying to find evidence of global warming. (PR)

  20. Wind Tunnel Measurements of Shuttle Orbiter Global Heating with Comparisons to Flight

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Berry, Scott A.; Merski, N. Ronald; Blanchard, Robert C.

    2002-01-01

    An aerothermodynamic database of global heating images was acquired of the Shuttle Orbiter in the NASA Langley Research Center 20-Inch Mach 6 Air Tunnel. These results were obtained for comparison to the global infrared images of the Orbiter in flight from the infrared sensing aeroheating flight experiment (ISAFE). The most recent ISAFE results from STS-103, consisted of port side images, at hypersonic conditions, of the surface features that result from the strake vortex scrubbing along the side of the vehicle. The wind tunnel results were obtained with the phosphor thermography system, which also provides global information and thus is ideally suited for comparison to the global flight results. The aerothermodynamic database includes both windward and port side heating images of the Orbiter for a range of angles of attack (20 to 40 deg), freestream unit Reynolds number (1 x 10(exp 6))/ft to 8 x 10(exp 6)/ft, body flap deflections (0, 5, and 10 deg), speed brake deflections (0 and 45 deg), as well as with boundary layer trips for forced transition to turbulence heating results. Sample global wind tunnel heat transfer images were extrapolated to flight conditions for comparison to Orbiter flight data. A windward laminar case for an angle of attack of 40 deg was extrapolated to Mach 11.6 flight conditions for comparison to STS-2 flight thermocouple results. A portside wind tunnel image for an angle of attack of 25 deg was extrapolated for Mach 5 flight conditions for comparison to STS-103 global surface temperatures. The comparisons showed excellent qualitative agreement, however the extrapolated wind tunnel results over-predicted the flight surface temperatures on the order of 5% on the windward surface and slightly higher on the portside.

  1. A Global User-Driven Model for Tile Prefetching in Web Geographical Information Systems.

    PubMed

    Pan, Shaoming; Chong, Yanwen; Zhang, Hang; Tan, Xicheng

    2017-01-01

    A web geographical information system is a typical service-intensive application. Tile prefetching and cache replacement can improve cache hit ratios by proactively fetching tiles from storage and replacing the appropriate tiles from the high-speed cache buffer without waiting for a client's requests, which reduces disk latency and improves system access performance. Most popular prefetching strategies consider only the relative tile popularities to predict which tile should be prefetched or consider only a single individual user's access behavior to determine which neighbor tiles need to be prefetched. Some studies show that comprehensively considering all users' access behaviors and all tiles' relationships in the prediction process can achieve more significant improvements. Thus, this work proposes a new global user-driven model for tile prefetching and cache replacement. First, based on all users' access behaviors, a type of expression method for tile correlation is designed and implemented. Then, a conditional prefetching probability can be computed based on the proposed correlation expression mode. Thus, some tiles to be prefetched can be found by computing and comparing the conditional prefetching probability from the uncached tiles set and, similarly, some replacement tiles can be found in the cache buffer according to multi-step prefetching. Finally, some experiments are provided comparing the proposed model with other global user-driven models, other single user-driven models, and other client-side prefetching strategies. The results show that the proposed model can achieve a prefetching hit rate in approximately 10.6% ~ 110.5% higher than the compared methods.

  2. A Global User-Driven Model for Tile Prefetching in Web Geographical Information Systems

    PubMed Central

    Pan, Shaoming; Chong, Yanwen; Zhang, Hang; Tan, Xicheng

    2017-01-01

    A web geographical information system is a typical service-intensive application. Tile prefetching and cache replacement can improve cache hit ratios by proactively fetching tiles from storage and replacing the appropriate tiles from the high-speed cache buffer without waiting for a client’s requests, which reduces disk latency and improves system access performance. Most popular prefetching strategies consider only the relative tile popularities to predict which tile should be prefetched or consider only a single individual user's access behavior to determine which neighbor tiles need to be prefetched. Some studies show that comprehensively considering all users’ access behaviors and all tiles’ relationships in the prediction process can achieve more significant improvements. Thus, this work proposes a new global user-driven model for tile prefetching and cache replacement. First, based on all users’ access behaviors, a type of expression method for tile correlation is designed and implemented. Then, a conditional prefetching probability can be computed based on the proposed correlation expression mode. Thus, some tiles to be prefetched can be found by computing and comparing the conditional prefetching probability from the uncached tiles set and, similarly, some replacement tiles can be found in the cache buffer according to multi-step prefetching. Finally, some experiments are provided comparing the proposed model with other global user-driven models, other single user-driven models, and other client-side prefetching strategies. The results show that the proposed model can achieve a prefetching hit rate in approximately 10.6% ~ 110.5% higher than the compared methods. PMID:28085937

  3. Teaching the Process of Obtaining Informed Consent to Medical Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, Shirley M.; And Others

    1992-01-01

    A unit on informed consent for first-year osteopathy students consists of pre- and posttests, a lecture, readings, small-group discussion, a model videotaped interview, and students' videotaped interviews with a simulated patient. Students were most successful in establishing patient rapport and discussion, least successful in conflict resolution…

  4. Persistent Identification of Agents and Objects of Global Change

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tilmes, C.; Fox, P. A.; Waple, A.; Zednik, S.

    2012-12-01

    "Global Change" includes climate change, ecological change, land-use changes and host of other interacting complex systems including societal and institutional implications. This vast body of information includes scientific research, data, measurements, models, analyses, assessments, etc. It is produced by a collection of multi-disciplinary researchers and organizations from around the world and demand for this information is increasing from a multitude of different audiences and stakeholders. The identification and organization of the agents and objects of global change information and their inter-relationships and contributions to the whole story of change is critical for conveying the state of knowledge, its complexity as well as syntheses and key messages to researchers, decision makers, and the public. The U.S. Global Change Research Program (http://globalchange.gov) coordinates and integrates federal research on changes in the global environment and their implications for society. The USGCRP is developing a Global Change Information System (GCIS) that will organize and present our best understanding of global change, and all the contributing information that leads to that understanding, including the provenance needed to trust and use that information. The first implementation will provide provenance for the National Climate Assessment (NCA). (http://assessment.globalchange.gov) The NCA must integrate, evaluate, and interpret the findings of the USGCRP; analyze the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity; and analyze current trends in global change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100 years. It also assesses information at the regional scale across the Nation. A synthesis report is required not less frequently than every four years and the next

  5. Facial expression recognition under partial occlusion based on fusion of global and local features

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Xiaohua; Xia, Chen; Hu, Min; Ren, Fuji

    2018-04-01

    Facial expression recognition under partial occlusion is a challenging research. This paper proposes a novel framework for facial expression recognition under occlusion by fusing the global and local features. In global aspect, first, information entropy are employed to locate the occluded region. Second, principal Component Analysis (PCA) method is adopted to reconstruct the occlusion region of image. After that, a replace strategy is applied to reconstruct image by replacing the occluded region with the corresponding region of the best matched image in training set, Pyramid Weber Local Descriptor (PWLD) feature is then extracted. At last, the outputs of SVM are fitted to the probabilities of the target class by using sigmoid function. For the local aspect, an overlapping block-based method is adopted to extract WLD features, and each block is weighted adaptively by information entropy, Chi-square distance and similar block summation methods are then applied to obtain the probabilities which emotion belongs to. Finally, fusion at the decision level is employed for the data fusion of the global and local features based on Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence. Experimental results on the Cohn-Kanade and JAFFE databases demonstrate the effectiveness and fault tolerance of this method.

  6. Globalization and health: a critical appraisal.

    PubMed

    Swende, T Z; Sokpo, J; Tamen, F I

    2008-01-01

    Health has long been recognized as a central feature of development. Globalization tends to be understood as a process of economic integration, but it implies more. It entails openness to trade, ideas, investment, people and culture all of which impact health. Review of relevant literature on globalization and health obtained from texts and Pubmed search. Globalization affects health positively and negatively simultaneously, depending on such factors as geographical location, sex, age, ethnic origin, educational level and socioeconomic status. The challenge remains how to make globalization work for health and to use health to foster better forms of globalization. The health community must brace up to the challenge of engaging in the globalization debate with a view to promoting better health for us all.

  7. Creating an Online Global Health Course and Game

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Anders, Brent A.; Briggs, Deborah J.; Hai-Jew, Shalin; Caby, Zachary; Werick, Mary

    2011-01-01

    As a college course, global public health covers topics that affect individuals' welfare and thus should be accessible to the public, providing information to help people make informed decisions about their health. This article discusses the creation of DMP 844: Global Health, a graduate-level course in the College of Veterinary Medicine's…

  8. Global Climate Change. Selected Annotated Bibliography. Second Edition.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jones, Douglas E.

    This annotated bibliography on global climate change contains 27 articles designed to expand the breadth and depth of information presented in the Global Change Information Packet. Most articles were chosen from journals likely to be available in most medium-sized public or college libraries. The articles cover a variety of topics related to…

  9. Global lightning studies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Goodman, Steven J.; Wright, Pat; Christian, Hugh; Blakeslee, Richard; Buechler, Dennis; Scharfen, Greg

    1991-01-01

    The global lightning signatures were analyzed from the DMSP Optical Linescan System (OLS) imagery archived at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Transition to analysis of the digital archive becomes available and compare annual, interannual, and seasonal variations with other global data sets. An initial survey of the quality of the existing film archive was completed and lightning signatures were digitized for the summer months of 1986 to 1987. The relationship is studied between: (1) global and regional lightning activity and rainfall, and (2) storm electrical development and environment. Remote sensing data sets obtained from field programs are used in conjunction with satellite/radar/lightning data to develop and improve precipitation estimation algorithms, and to provide a better understanding of the co-evolving electrical, microphysical, and dynamical structure of storms.

  10. Subfossil remains of Pediastrum - a tool to obtain palaeolimnological information parallel to pollen analysis?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Turner, F.; Zhu, L.; Ma, Q.; Peng, P.; Lü, X.

    2014-12-01

    It has been a long-time goal of palynologists to obtain additionally palaeoenvironmental information by the study of Quaternary non-pollen-palynomorphs (NPPs) in pollen slides. As a group of NPPs, subfossil remains of green algae of the genus Pediastrum (fam. Hydrodictyaceae) are frequently found in lake sediments and withstand the palynological standard preparation methods. Determination of Pediastrum taxa to subspecies level is relatively easy with a standard light microscope. Very few studies, however, have used them as palaeolimnological indicators and the knowledge on recent distribution and ecology of many taxa is limited. Introducing new data from Northwestern Europe and the Tibetan Plateau, we show that analysis of subfossil Pediastrum assemblages can reveal valuable information on limnological and climate parameters. Shifts in taxonomic composition of Pediastrum assemblages from lake sediments in northern Germany are shown to strongly reflect the Northern Atlantic Late Glacial climate oscillations. In contrast to previous studies that recognized trophic state as the main driver of change in Pediastrum species composition, we identify climate shifts and related factors as the major drivers of community change. Water depth and trophic state probably acted as secondary factors only. Ongoing research compares the composition of Pediastrum assemblages in surface sediments of Tibetan lakes to environmental variables. While Pediastrum algae are shown to be a part of phytoplankton communities in freshwater to mesosaline lakes, shifts in species composition along the salinity gradient indicate the possible use of the algae group as palaeobioindicator for past humidity changes on the Tibetan Plateau. Additionally, investigations on the relation between water depth and the Pediastrum species composition in lake Taro Co (4575 m asl.) are presented. Our results suggest this algae group has great potential for enabling environmental inferences.

  11. Improving multi-objective reservoir operation optimization with sensitivity-informed dimension reduction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chu, J.; Zhang, C.; Fu, G.; Li, Y.; Zhou, H.

    2015-08-01

    This study investigates the effectiveness of a sensitivity-informed method for multi-objective operation of reservoir systems, which uses global sensitivity analysis as a screening tool to reduce computational demands. Sobol's method is used to screen insensitive decision variables and guide the formulation of the optimization problems with a significantly reduced number of decision variables. This sensitivity-informed method dramatically reduces the computational demands required for attaining high-quality approximations of optimal trade-off relationships between conflicting design objectives. The search results obtained from the reduced complexity multi-objective reservoir operation problems are then used to pre-condition the full search of the original optimization problem. In two case studies, the Dahuofang reservoir and the inter-basin multi-reservoir system in Liaoning province, China, sensitivity analysis results show that reservoir performance is strongly controlled by a small proportion of decision variables. Sensitivity-informed dimension reduction and pre-conditioning are evaluated in their ability to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of multi-objective evolutionary optimization. Overall, this study illustrates the efficiency and effectiveness of the sensitivity-informed method and the use of global sensitivity analysis to inform dimension reduction of optimization problems when solving complex multi-objective reservoir operation problems.

  12. Improving multi-objective reservoir operation optimization with sensitivity-informed problem decomposition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chu, J. G.; Zhang, C.; Fu, G. T.; Li, Y.; Zhou, H. C.

    2015-04-01

    This study investigates the effectiveness of a sensitivity-informed method for multi-objective operation of reservoir systems, which uses global sensitivity analysis as a screening tool to reduce the computational demands. Sobol's method is used to screen insensitive decision variables and guide the formulation of the optimization problems with a significantly reduced number of decision variables. This sensitivity-informed problem decomposition dramatically reduces the computational demands required for attaining high quality approximations of optimal tradeoff relationships between conflicting design objectives. The search results obtained from the reduced complexity multi-objective reservoir operation problems are then used to pre-condition the full search of the original optimization problem. In two case studies, the Dahuofang reservoir and the inter-basin multi-reservoir system in Liaoning province, China, sensitivity analysis results show that reservoir performance is strongly controlled by a small proportion of decision variables. Sensitivity-informed problem decomposition and pre-conditioning are evaluated in their ability to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of multi-objective evolutionary optimization. Overall, this study illustrates the efficiency and effectiveness of the sensitivity-informed method and the use of global sensitivity analysis to inform problem decomposition when solving the complex multi-objective reservoir operation problems.

  13. Globalization of Healthcare

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Globalization—the increasing transnational circulation of money, goods, people, ideas, and information worldwide—is generally recognized as one of the most powerful forces shaping our current and future history. How is it affecting healthcare, and in that context, what is the purpose and significance of Global Advances in Health and Medicine (GAHM), publisher of this journal? Our goal is not homogenization but rather to provide an opportunity for integration, convergence, and collaboration across cultures. By respecting and conserving the richness and diversity of each new medicine, we embrace globalization. Globalization is of course not new; it began in the Renaissance and particularly with the 15th- and 16th-century voyages of exploration by Columbus, Magellan, and others. Since the beginning of time, there have been interactions and exchanges among different peoples and cultures. However, the current magnitude of globalization is unprecedented and yet still expanding rapidly. PMID:24278809

  14. Preparing US Teachers for Critical Global Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Connor, Kate; Zeichner, Ken

    2011-01-01

    While recognising the nature and significance of the theoretical bases and dimensions of the range of theoretical orientations that inform the literature on global and international education, the central aim of this paper is to describe in a more concrete way "critical global education (CGE)", an approach to global education that seeks…

  15. Retrieving Temperature Anomaly in the Global Subsurface and Deeper Ocean From Satellite Observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Hua; Li, Wene; Yan, Xiao-Hai

    2018-01-01

    Retrieving the subsurface and deeper ocean (SDO) dynamic parameters from satellite observations is crucial for effectively understanding ocean interior anomalies and dynamic processes, but it is challenging to accurately estimate the subsurface thermal structure over the global scale from sea surface parameters. This study proposes a new approach based on Random Forest (RF) machine learning to retrieve subsurface temperature anomaly (STA) in the global ocean from multisource satellite observations including sea surface height anomaly (SSHA), sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA), sea surface salinity anomaly (SSSA), and sea surface wind anomaly (SSWA) via in situ Argo data for RF training and testing. RF machine-learning approach can accurately retrieve the STA in the global ocean from satellite observations of sea surface parameters (SSHA, SSTA, SSSA, SSWA). The Argo STA data were used to validate the accuracy and reliability of the results from the RF model. The results indicated that SSHA, SSTA, SSSA, and SSWA together are useful parameters for detecting SDO thermal information and obtaining accurate STA estimations. The proposed method also outperformed support vector regression (SVR) in global STA estimation. It will be a useful technique for studying SDO thermal variability and its role in global climate system from global-scale satellite observations.

  16. Fractal markets hypothesis and the global financial crisis: wavelet power evidence.

    PubMed

    Kristoufek, Ladislav

    2013-10-04

    We analyze whether the prediction of the fractal markets hypothesis about a dominance of specific investment horizons during turbulent times holds. To do so, we utilize the continuous wavelet transform analysis and obtained wavelet power spectra which give the crucial information about the variance distribution across scales and its evolution in time. We show that the most turbulent times of the Global Financial Crisis can be very well characterized by the dominance of short investment horizons which is in hand with the assertions of the fractal markets hypothesis.

  17. Fractal Markets Hypothesis and the Global Financial Crisis: Wavelet Power Evidence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kristoufek, Ladislav

    2013-10-01

    We analyze whether the prediction of the fractal markets hypothesis about a dominance of specific investment horizons during turbulent times holds. To do so, we utilize the continuous wavelet transform analysis and obtained wavelet power spectra which give the crucial information about the variance distribution across scales and its evolution in time. We show that the most turbulent times of the Global Financial Crisis can be very well characterized by the dominance of short investment horizons which is in hand with the assertions of the fractal markets hypothesis.

  18. Fractal Markets Hypothesis and the Global Financial Crisis: Wavelet Power Evidence

    PubMed Central

    Kristoufek, Ladislav

    2013-01-01

    We analyze whether the prediction of the fractal markets hypothesis about a dominance of specific investment horizons during turbulent times holds. To do so, we utilize the continuous wavelet transform analysis and obtained wavelet power spectra which give the crucial information about the variance distribution across scales and its evolution in time. We show that the most turbulent times of the Global Financial Crisis can be very well characterized by the dominance of short investment horizons which is in hand with the assertions of the fractal markets hypothesis. PMID:24091386

  19. Global finite-time attitude stabilization for rigid spacecraft in the exponential coordinates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shi, Xiao-Ning; Zhou, Zhi-Gang; Zhou, Di

    2018-06-01

    This paper addresses the global finite-time attitude stabilisation problem on the special orthogonal group (SO(3)) for a rigid spacecraft via homogeneous feedback approach. Considering the topological and geometric properties of SO(3), the logarithm map is utilised to transform the stabilisation problem on SO(3) into the one on its associated Lie algebra (?). A model-independent discontinuous state feedback plus dynamics compensation scheme is constructed to achieve the global finite-time attitude stabilisation in a coordinate-invariant way. In addition, to address the absence of angular velocity measurements, a sliding mode observer is proposed to reconstruct the unknown angular velocity information within finite time. Then, an observer-based finite-time output feedback control strategy is obtained. Numerical simulations are finally performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed finite-time controllers.

  20. Preliminary analysis of pilot ratings of 'part line' information importance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pritchett, Amy; Hansman, R. John

    1993-01-01

    With the introduction of digital datalink communications into the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system, there is concern over the potential loss of situational awareness by flight crews due to the reduction in the 'Party Line Information' (PLI). This information is available to the pilot by overhearing communications between ATC and other aircraft. A survey was distributed to determine current PLI use by several pilot operational groups, experience levels and geographic regions. The survey identified numerous important elements. PLI was rated the highest for operations near or on approach to the airport. Several significant variations were found between pilots from different operational groups and experience levels. Traffic and weather information were the most frequently cited as information required to obtain global situation awareness.

  1. Preliminary Analysis of Pilot Ratings of "Party Line" Information Importance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pritchett, Amy; Hansman, R. John

    1993-01-01

    With the introduction of digital data link communications into the ATC system, there is concern over the potential loss of situational awareness by flight crews due to the reduction in the 'Party Line' Information (PLI). This information is available to the pilot by overhearing communications between ATC and other aircraft. A survey was distributed to determine current PLI use by several pilot operational groups, experience levels and geographic regions. The survey identified numerous important elements. PLI was rated the highest for operations near or on approach to the airport. Several significant variations were found between pilots from different operational groups and experience levels. Traffic and weather information were the most frequently cited as information required to obtain global situation awareness.

  2. Global modeling of soil evaporation efficiency for a chosen soil type

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Georgiana Stefan, Vivien; Mangiarotti, Sylvain; Merlin, Olivier; Chanzy, André

    2016-04-01

    One way of reproducing the dynamics of a system is by deriving a set of differential, difference or discrete equations directly from observational time series. A method for obtaining such a system is the global modeling technique [1]. The approach is here applied to the dynamics of soil evaporative efficiency (SEE), defined as the ratio of actual to potential evaporation. SEE is an interesting variable to study since it is directly linked to soil evaporation (LE) which plays an important role in the water cycle and since it can be easily derived from satellite measurements. One goal of the present work is to get a semi-empirical parameter that could account for the variety of the SEE dynamical behaviors resulting from different soil properties. Before trying to obtain such a semi-empirical parameter with the global modeling technique, it is first necessary to prove that this technique can be applied to the dynamics of SEE without any a priori information. The global modeling technique is thus applied here to a synthetic series of SEE, reconstructed from the TEC (Transfert Eau Chaleur) model [2]. It is found that an autonomous chaotic model can be retrieved for the dynamics of SEE. The obtained model is four-dimensional and exhibits a complex behavior. The comparison of the original and the model phase portraits shows a very good consistency that proves that the original dynamical behavior is well described by the model. To evaluate the model accuracy, the forecasting error growth is estimated. To get a robust estimate of this error growth, the forecasting error is computed for prediction horizons of 0 to 9 hours, starting from different initial conditions and statistics of the error growth are thus performed. Results show that, for a maximum error level of 40% of the signal variance, the horizon of predictability is close to 3 hours, approximately one third of the diurnal part of day. These results are interesting for various reasons. To the best of our knowledge

  3. Global Warming: Understanding and Teaching the Forecast. Part A The Greenhouse Effect.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Andrews, Bill

    1993-01-01

    Provides information necessary for an interdisciplinary analysis of the greenhouse effect, enhanced greenhouse effect, global warming, global climate change, greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, and scientific study of global warming for students grades 4-12. Several activity ideas accompany the information. (LZ)

  4. Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Mission

    NASA Image and Video Library

    2017-12-08

    Art Azarbarzin, NASA Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) project manager talks during a technical briefing for the launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory aboard an H-IIA rocket, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014, Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. Launch is scheduled for early in the morning of Feb. 28 Japan time. Once launched, the GPM spacecraft will collect information that unifies data from an international network of existing and future satellites to map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

  5. How To Obtain Aerial Photographs

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    1999-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maintains an informational data base of aerial photographic coverage of the United States and its territories that dates back to the 1940?s. This information describes photographic projects from the USGS, other Federal, State, and local government agencies, and commercial firms. The pictures on this page show a part of a standard 9- by 9-inch photograph and the results obtained by enlarging the original photograph two and four times. Compare the size of the Qualcomm Stadium, Jack Murphy Field, in San Diego, Calif, and the adjacent parking lot and freeways shown at the different scales. USGS Earth Science Information Center (ESIC) representatives will assist you in locating and ordering photographs. Please submit the completed checklist and a marked map showing your area of interest to any ESIC.

  6. Mapping a Global Agenda for Adolescent Health

    PubMed Central

    Patton, George C.; Viner, Russell M.; Linh, Le Cu; Ameratunga, Shanthi; Fatusi, Adesegun O.; Ferguson, B. Jane; Patel, Vikram

    2016-01-01

    Major changes in health are underway in many low- and middle-income countries that are likely to bring greater focus on adolescents. This commentary, based on a 2009 London meeting, considers the need for strategic information for future global initiatives in adolescent health. Current coverage of adolescent health in global data collections is patchy. There is both the need and scope to extend existing collections into the adolescent years as well as achieve greater harmonization of measures between surveys. The development of a core set of global adolescent health indicators would aid this process. Other important tasks include adapting and testing interventions in low- and middle-income countries, growing research capacity in those settings, better communication of research from those countries, and building structures to implement future global initiatives. A global agenda needs more than good data, but sound information about adolescent health and its social and environmental determinants, will be important in both advocacy and practice. PMID:20970076

  7. Information carriers and (reading them through) information theory in quantum chemistry.

    PubMed

    Geerlings, Paul; Borgoo, Alex

    2011-01-21

    This Perspective discusses the reduction of the electronic wave function via the second-order reduced density matrix to the electron density ρ(r), which is the key ingredient in density functional theory (DFT) as a basic carrier of information. Simplifying further, the 1-normalized density function turns out to contain essentially the same information as ρ(r) and is even of preferred use as an information carrier when discussing the periodic properties along Mendeleev's table where essentially the valence electrons are at stake. The Kullback-Leibler information deficiency turns out to be the most interesting choice to obtain information on the differences in ρ(r) or σ(r) between two systems. To put it otherwise: when looking for the construction of a functional F(AB) = F[ζ(A)(r),ζ(B)(r)] for extracting differences in information from an information carrier ζ(r) (i.e. ρ(r), σ(r)) for two systems A and B the Kullback-Leibler information measure ΔS is a particularly adequate choice. Examples are given, varying from atoms, to molecules and molecular interactions. Quantum similarity of atoms indicates that the shape function based KL information deficiency is the most appropriate tool to retrieve periodicity in the Periodic Table. The dissimilarity of enantiomers for which different information measures are presented at global and local (i.e. molecular and atomic) level leads to an extension of Mezey's holographic density theorem and shows numerical evidence that in a chiral molecule the whole molecule is pervaded by chirality. Finally Kullback-Leibler information profiles are discussed for intra- and intermolecular proton transfer reactions and a simple S(N)2 reaction indicating that the theoretical information profile can be used as a companion to the energy based Hammond postulate to discuss the early or late transition state character of a reaction. All in all this Perspective's answer is positive to the question of whether an even simpler carrier of

  8. Conscious Vision Proceeds from Global to Local Content in Goal-Directed Tasks and Spontaneous Vision.

    PubMed

    Campana, Florence; Rebollo, Ignacio; Urai, Anne; Wyart, Valentin; Tallon-Baudry, Catherine

    2016-05-11

    The reverse hierarchy theory (Hochstein and Ahissar, 2002) makes strong, but so far untested, predictions on conscious vision. In this theory, local details encoded in lower-order visual areas are unconsciously processed before being automatically and rapidly combined into global information in higher-order visual areas, where conscious percepts emerge. Contingent on current goals, local details can afterward be consciously retrieved. This model therefore predicts that (1) global information is perceived faster than local details, (2) global information is computed regardless of task demands during early visual processing, and (3) spontaneous vision is dominated by global percepts. We designed novel textured stimuli that are, as opposed to the classic Navon's letters, truly hierarchical (i.e., where global information is solely defined by local information but where local and global orientations can still be manipulated separately). In line with the predictions, observers were systematically faster reporting global than local properties of those stimuli. Second, global information could be decoded from magneto-encephalographic data during early visual processing regardless of task demands. Last, spontaneous subjective reports were dominated by global information and the frequency and speed of spontaneous global perception correlated with the accuracy and speed in the global task. No such correlation was observed for local information. We therefore show that information at different levels of the visual hierarchy is not equally likely to become conscious; rather, conscious percepts emerge preferentially at a global level. We further show that spontaneous reports can be reliable and are tightly linked to objective performance at the global level. Is information encoded at different levels of the visual system (local details in low-level areas vs global shapes in high-level areas) equally likely to become conscious? We designed new hierarchical stimuli and provide the

  9. [Test Reviews in Child Psychology: Test Users Wish to Obtain Practical Information Relevant to their Respective Field of Work].

    PubMed

    Renner, Gerolf; Irblich, Dieter

    2016-11-01

    Test Reviews in Child Psychology: Test Users Wish to Obtain Practical Information Relevant to their Respective Field of Work This study investigated to what extent diagnosticians use reviews of psychometric tests for children and adolescents, how they evaluate their quality, and what they expect concerning content. Test users (n = 323) from different areas of work (notably social pediatrics, early intervention, special education, speech and language therapy) rated test reviews as one of the most important sources of information. Readers of test reviews value practically oriented descriptions and evaluations of tests that are relevant to their respective field of work. They expect independent reviews that critically discuss opportunities and limits of the tests under scrutiny. The results show that authors of test reviews should not only have a background in test theory but should also be familiar with the practical application of tests in various settings.

  10. The Global Menace

    PubMed Central

    Hodges, Sarah

    2015-01-01

    Summary The history of medicine has gone ‘global.’ Why? Can the proliferation of the ‘global’ in our writing be explained away as a product of staying true to our historical subjects’ categories? Or has this historiography in fact delivered a new ‘global’ problematic or performed serious ‘global’ analytic work? The situation is far from clear, and it is the tension between the global as descriptor and an analytics of the global that concerns me here. I have three main concerns: (1) that there is an epistemic collusion between the discourses of universality that inform medical science and global-talk; (2) that the embrace of the ‘global’ authorises a turning away from analyses of power in history-writing in that (3) this turning away from analyses of power in history-writing leads to scholarship that reproduces rather than critiques globalisation as a set of institutions, discourses and practices. PMID:26345469

  11. Global assessment of surfing conditions: seasonal, interannual and long-term variability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Espejo, A.; Losada, I.; Mendez, F.

    2012-12-01

    International surfing destinations owe a great debt to specific combinations of wind-wave, thermal conditions and local bathymetry. As surf quality depends on a vast number of geophysical variables, a multivariable standardized index on the basis of expert judgment is proposed to analyze surf resource in a worldwide domain. Data needed is obtained by combining several datasets (reanalyses): 60-year satellite-calibrated spectral wave hindcast (GOW, WaveWatchIII), wind fields from NCEP/NCAR, global sea surface temperature from ERSST.v3b, and global tides from TPXO7.1. A summary of the global surf resource is presented, which highlights the high degree of variability in surfable events. According to general atmospheric circulation, results show that west facing low to middle latitude coasts are more suitable for surfing, especially those in Southern Hemisphere. Month to month analysis reveals strong seasonal changes in the occurrence of surfable events, enhancing those in North Atlantic or North Pacific. Interannual variability is investigated by comparing occurrence values with global and regional climate patterns showing a great influence at both, global and regional scales. Analysis of long term trends shows an increase in the probability of surfable events over the west facing coasts on the planet (i.e. + 30 hours/year in California). The resulting maps provide useful information for surfers and surf related stakeholders, coastal planning, education, and basic research.; Figure 1. Global distribution of medium quality (a) and high quality surf conditions probability (b).

  12. Community structure and diversity of tropical forest mammals: data from a global camera trap network.

    PubMed

    Ahumada, Jorge A; Silva, Carlos E F; Gajapersad, Krisna; Hallam, Chris; Hurtado, Johanna; Martin, Emanuel; McWilliam, Alex; Mugerwa, Badru; O'Brien, Tim; Rovero, Francesco; Sheil, Douglas; Spironello, Wilson R; Winarni, Nurul; Andelman, Sandy J

    2011-09-27

    Terrestrial mammals are a key component of tropical forest communities as indicators of ecosystem health and providers of important ecosystem services. However, there is little quantitative information about how they change with local, regional and global threats. In this paper, the first standardized pantropical forest terrestrial mammal community study, we examine several aspects of terrestrial mammal species and community diversity (species richness, species diversity, evenness, dominance, functional diversity and community structure) at seven sites around the globe using a single standardized camera trapping methodology approach. The sites-located in Uganda, Tanzania, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Suriname, Brazil and Costa Rica-are surrounded by different landscape configurations, from continuous forests to highly fragmented forests. We obtained more than 51 000 images and detected 105 species of mammals with a total sampling effort of 12 687 camera trap days. We find that mammal communities from highly fragmented sites have lower species richness, species diversity, functional diversity and higher dominance when compared with sites in partially fragmented and continuous forest. We emphasize the importance of standardized camera trapping approaches for obtaining baselines for monitoring forest mammal communities so as to adequately understand the effect of global, regional and local threats and appropriately inform conservation actions.

  13. Economic Globalization and a Nuclear Renaissance

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

    Wood, Thomas W; Johnson, Wayne L; Parker, Brian M

    2001-10-22

    The phenomenon of globalization has become increasingly well recognized, documented, and analyzed in the last several years. Globalization, the integration of markets and intra-firm competition on a worldwide basis, involves complex behavioral and mindset changes within a firm that facilitate global competition. The changes revolve around efficient information flow and rapid deployment of technology. The objective of this report is to examine the probable characteristics of a global nuclear renaissance and its broad implications for industry structure and export control relative to nuclear technology. The question of how a modern renaissance would affect the trend toward globalization of the nuclearmore » industry is addressed.« less

  14. a Hamiltonian to Obtain a Global Frequency Analysis of all the Vibrational Bands of Ethane

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moazzen-Ahmadi, Nasser; Norooz Oliaee, Jalal

    2016-06-01

    The interest in laboratory spectroscopy of ethane stems from the desire to understand the methane cycle in the atmospheres of planets and their moons and from the importance of ethane as a trace species in the terrestrial atmosphere. Solar decomposition of methane in the upper part of these atmospheres followed by a series of reactions leads to a variety of hydrocarbon compounds among which ethane is often the second most abundant species. Because of its high abundance, ethane spectra have been measured by Voyager and Cassini in the regions around 30, 12, 7, and 3 μm. Therefore, a complete knowledge of line parameters of ethane is crucial for spectroscopic remote sensing of planetary atmospheres. Experimental characterization of torsion-vibration states of ethane lying below 1400 cm-1 have been made previously, but extension of the Hamiltonian model for treatment of the strongly perturbed νb{8} fundamental and the complex band system of ethane in the 3 micron region requires careful examination of the operators for many new torsionally mediated vibration-rotation interactions. Following the procedures outlined by Hougen, we have re-examined the transformation properties of the total angular momentum, the translational and vibrational coordinates and momenta of ethane, and for vibration-torsion-rotation interaction terms constructed by taking products of these basic operators. It is found that for certain choices of phase, the doubly degenerate vibrational coordinates with and symmetry can be made to transform under the group elements in such a way as to yield real matrix elements for the torsion-vibration-rotation couplings whereas other choices of phase may require complex algebra. In this talk, I will discuss the construction of a very general torsion-vibration-rotation Hamiltonian for ethane, as well as the prospect for using such a Hamiltonian to obtain a global frequency analysis (based in large part on an extension of earlier programs and ethane fits^a from

  15. Bridging Innovation and Outreach to Overcome Global Gaps in Radiation Oncology Through Information and Communication Tools, Trainee Advancement, Engaging Industry, Attention to Ethical Challenges, and Political Advocacy.

    PubMed

    Dad, Luqman; Royce, Trevor J; Morris, Zachary; Moran, Meena; Pawlicki, Todd; Khuntia, Deepak; Hardenbergh, Patricia; Cummings, Bernard; Mayr, Nina; Hu, Kenneth

    2017-04-01

    An evolving paradigm in global outreach in radiation oncology has been the implementation of a more region-specific, needs-based approach to help close the gap in radiation services to low- and middle-income countries through the use of innovative tools in information and communication technology. This report highlights 4 information and communication technology tools in action today: (1) the NCCN Framework for Resource Stratification of NCCN guidelines, (2) ASTRO e-Contouring, (3) i.treatsafely.org, and (4) ChartRounds.com. We also render special consideration to matters related to global outreach that we believe require distinct attention to help us meet the goals established by the 2011 United Nations׳ Declaration on noncommunicable diseases: (1) trainee advancement toward careers in global health, (2) ethical challenges of international outreach, (3) critical importance of political advocacy, and (4) collaboration with Industry. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. 78 FR 4175 - Eco Global Corporation, Execute Sports, Inc., FacePrint Global Solutions, Inc., FinancialContent...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-01-18

    ... SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION [File No. 500-1] Eco Global Corporation, Execute Sports, Inc., FacePrint Global Solutions, Inc., FinancialContent, Inc., and Firstgold Corp.; Order of Suspension of Trading January 16, 2013. It appears to the Securities and Exchange Commission that there is a lack of current and accurate information concerning...

  17. Interoperability and information discovery

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Christian, E.

    2001-01-01

    In the context of information systems, there is interoperability when the distinctions between separate information systems are not a barrier to accomplishing a task that spans those systems. Interoperability so defined implies that there are commonalities among the systems involved and that one can exploit such commonalities to achieve interoperability. The challenge of a particular interoperability task is to identify relevant commonalities among the systems involved and to devise mechanisms that exploit those commonalities. The present paper focuses on the particular interoperability task of information discovery. The Global Information Locator Service (GILS) is described as a policy, standards, and technology framework for addressing interoperable information discovery on a global and long-term basis. While there are many mechanisms for people to discover and use all manner of data and information resources, GILS initiatives exploit certain key commonalities that seem to be sufficient to realize useful information discovery interoperability at a global, long-term scale. This paper describes ten of the specific commonalities that are key to GILS initiatives. It presents some of the practical implications for organizations in various roles: content provider, system engineer, intermediary, and searcher. The paper also provides examples of interoperable information discovery as deployed using GILS in four types of information communities: bibliographic, geographic, environmental, and government.

  18. The NASA-Goddard Multi-Scale Modeling Framework - Land Information System: Global Land/atmosphere Interaction with Resolved Convection

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mohr, Karen Irene; Tao, Wei-Kuo; Chern, Jiun-Dar; Kumar, Sujay V.; Peters-Lidard, Christa D.

    2013-01-01

    The present generation of general circulation models (GCM) use parameterized cumulus schemes and run at hydrostatic grid resolutions. To improve the representation of cloud-scale moist processes and landeatmosphere interactions, a global, Multi-scale Modeling Framework (MMF) coupled to the Land Information System (LIS) has been developed at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. The MMFeLIS has three components, a finite-volume (fv) GCM (Goddard Earth Observing System Ver. 4, GEOS-4), a 2D cloud-resolving model (Goddard Cumulus Ensemble, GCE), and the LIS, representing the large-scale atmospheric circulation, cloud processes, and land surface processes, respectively. The non-hydrostatic GCE model replaces the single-column cumulus parameterization of fvGCM. The model grid is composed of an array of fvGCM gridcells each with a series of embedded GCE models. A horizontal coupling strategy, GCE4fvGCM4Coupler4LIS, offered significant computational efficiency, with the scalability and I/O capabilities of LIS permitting landeatmosphere interactions at cloud-scale. Global simulations of 2007e2008 and comparisons to observations and reanalysis products were conducted. Using two different versions of the same land surface model but the same initial conditions, divergence in regional, synoptic-scale surface pressure patterns emerged within two weeks. The sensitivity of largescale circulations to land surface model physics revealed significant functional value to using a scalable, multi-model land surface modeling system in global weather and climate prediction.

  19. Working with/against Globalization in Education.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Henry, Miriam; Lingard, Bob; Rizvi, Fazal; Taylor, Sandra

    1999-01-01

    Argues against the juggernaut view of globalization, suggesting that much depends on how we engage with global forces to mitigate their worst consequences and use them to advantage. Views democratic nation-building, informed by education, as pivotal to the engagement process. Locally, educators must retrieve the "public" in public…

  20. Out of Alignment? Limitations of the Global Burden of Disease in Assessing the Allocation of Global Health Aid

    PubMed Central

    Voigt, Kristin; King, Nicholas B

    2017-01-01

    Abstract The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project quantifies the impact of different health conditions by combining information about morbidity and premature mortality within a single metric, the Disability Adjusted Life Year. One important goal for the GBD project has been to inform decisions about global health priorities. A number of recent studies have used GBD data to argue that global health funding fails to align with the GBD. We argue that these studies’ shared assumption that global health resources should ‘align’ with the burden of disease is unfounded and has troubling implications. First, since the allocation of resources involves difficult trade-offs between different, potentially competing goals, any ‘misalignment’ of allocation and disease burdens need not necessarily indicate that the allocation of funds fails to meet recipient countries’ needs or interests. Second, using alignment as a baseline implicitly makes controversial assumptions about how harms of different magnitudes affecting different numbers of individuals should be aggregated. We discuss two alternative ways in which GBD data could help inform decisions about resource allocation, neither of which gives more than a limited role to GBD data. PMID:29731809