bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Using Picture and Picture Model to Improve Writting Short Story
Authors: Cinde Adia Diningsih Nur Puspitasari &
Published: July 2019

This article will discuss learning to write short stories with the picture and picture model. Is there any significant difference between the ability to write short stories using the picture and picture model and that which does not use the model? The study was conducted using quasi-experimental design with the pre test-post test of control group design. The study was conducted in class XI of SMK 2 Cilaku. Data collection techniques use tests and questionnaires. Reliability testing is done with the Cronbach alpha coefficient formula. The calculation results show the reliability value of 0.873 which is greater than the coefficient value of 0.6. Data analysis techniques were carried out using the post-test and t-test results scores. The results showed a significant difference in the short story post-test scores of the control group and the experimental group. In the control group there were 3 (three) students who scored low, 8 (eight) students scored medium, and 3 (three ) students got a high score. In the experimental group 1 (one) student got a low score, 11 (eleven) students scored medium, and 7 (seven) students got a high score. This shows that there are significant differences in short story writing skills between the experimental group and the control group. The results of the t-test of the pre test score and the post test of the experimental group had a significant 2-tailed 0.009 smaller than 0.05, which showed that Ho was rejected with the difference the experimental class average value of 72.9474 higher than the control class of 70.2500, based on these results that the picture and picture learning model can improve the ability to write short stories at SMK Negeri 2 Cilaku.Keywords: implementation, picture and picture model, writing short story
Comparison of the Problem Based Learning and Inquiry Model with the Visual Media in Improving the Ability to Write Short Stories
Authors: Marlina Erna
Published: July 2019

This article will discuss the comparison of two learning models which are motivated by the ability to write short stories and the difficulties of students in expressing ideas and ideas in a short story. The method used in the research is experiment. Data collection techniques are carried out by tests, observations, and questionnaires. After posttest data analysis shows the value of sig (2-tailed) of 0.007 or 0.0035, meaning the value of sig (0.007) <a (0.05) H0 is rejected and Ha is accepted, at a significance level of 5% the average posttest score the experiment was 79.35 and the control class was 70.97. This means that the ability to write short stories of experimental class students who use the problem based learning model with visual media is better than the control class that uses the inquiry model with visual media. Keywords: problem based learning, writing, short stories, inquiry, visual media models
PENGGUNAAN HEAT EXCHANGER DALAM PENGOLAHAN GULA AREN
Authors: Varayesi Fidya
Published: July 2019

Sebelumnya dengan cara tradisional gula aren dimasak sebanyak 20 liter dengan menggunakan panci yang menggunakan api dari kayu yang dibakar. Sehingga dapat diperkirakan seorang petani memerlukan sekitar 30 kg kayu per hari. Pendidihan gula aren memakan waktu 4 – 5 jam (Julius,2015).Metode yang akan digunakan pada paper ini adalah menggunakan heat exchanger untuk menghasilkan air panas yang dapat mendidihkan gula aren secara lebih efisien. Fluida (brine) yang diperoleh dari separator dialirkan kedalam tube kemudian digunakan untuk mendidihkan nira sehingga menjadi larutan gula aren. Dari hasil perhitungan,nilai LMTD pada heat exchanger untuk mendidihkan nira adalah 80°C adalah 42,9°C.
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN STUDENTS’ GRAMMAR MASTERY AND NEWS WRITING ABILITY
Authors: Etfita Fauzul
Published: July 2019

The objective of this research was to find out the correlation between students’ grammar mastery and News writing ability of the fourth semester students of English Language Education at Faculty of Teachers’ and Training Universitas Islam Riau. This research used correlation research design. The research sample was 4C Class which consisted of 26 students which selected by using cluster sampling technique. Technique of data collection was grammar and news writing tests. In analysing the data, the researcher applied Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Significance of Coefficient Correlation formula. The result of calculating correlation between students’ grammar mastery and their achievement in News writing was r = 0.874. It means that there is a significant correlation between students’ mastery of grammar and News writing ability of the fourth semester students of English Language Education at Faculty of Teachers’ and Training Universitas Islam Riau
KAJIAN KONSEPTUAL TENTANG SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL) DALAM PEMBELAJARAN BAHASA
Authors: Helaluddin Helaluddin , Alamsyah Alamsyah
Published: July 2019

In the industrial era 4.0, the students, as one of the main components of education, have many conflicts and problems that brought to the school. That is, student is not only facing problem in academic aspect but also psychology aspect. For this reason, it is necessary to have the right strategy in social emotional learning (SEL) to equip students with the various skills they need in era industrial 4.0. this study was conduct using the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method for various research results and other sources related to SEL activities. Through language learning, expected pupils to develop a variety of SEL skills, such as: (1) self-awareness, (2) self-management, (3) social awareness, (4) relationship skills, and (5) responsible decision-making. Furthermore, this article also discusses various strategies and language learning program that can be used by teachers in instilling the SEL in the classroom.
‘These Off-beat “Crazy Kids and Gals”’: Jazz in Ireland, 1918–1960
Authors: Evans Damian
Published: July 2019

This paper conducts a historical overview of jazz in Ireland, with a focus on the Dublin jazz scene from 1918 to 1960. Using archival resources, it looks at black and black-influenced music, minstrelsy and blackface before examining the arrival and reception of early jazz in what was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It traces the changing nature of the Dublin jazz scene, covering topics such as jazz as dance music, the anti-jazz movement and the development of the dominant narrative of jazz as art-form that continues to this day.

This paper also documents the shifting reception of jazz in Ireland from a threatening foreign music through to a music that has served the purposes of both entertainment and art. It makes a case for the Irish jazz narrative to include the activities of amateur musicians, dance band musicians and others, arguing that their involvement with jazz went beyond a casual interest, establishing an active community of practice that constituted an early Irish jazz scene.
PUTUSAN MAHKAMAH KONSTITUSI NO. 46/PUU-VIII/2010 DALAM BINGKAI HUKUM PROGRESIF
Authors: Sarifudin Sarifudin , Abdillah Kudrat
Published: July 2019

Tulisan ini mengkaji putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi No. 46/PUU-VIII/2010 ditinjau dari optik hukum progresif. Mahkamah Konstitusi lewat putusannya telah membuat terobosan baru yang cukup kontroversial. Keberaniannya di dalam mencari kebenaran dan keadilan substantif telah menghantarkannya kepada upaya rule breaking terhadap peraturan perundang-undangan yang telah ada. Tulisan ini berangkat dari kegelisahan akademik tentang pertanyaan ada tidaknya semangat hukum progresif dalam putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi No. 46/PUU-VIII/2010. Dalam penelitian ini, teori utama yang digunakan adalah teori hukum progresif dari Satjipto Rahardjo dengan pendekatan kasus (case approach) dan pendekatan konseptual (conceptual approach). Pendekatan kasus digunakan penulis untuk memahami dan menguraikan alasan-alasan hukum (ratio decidendi) yang digunakan oleh hakim Mahkamah Konstitusi untuk sampai kepada putusannya. Sedangkan dengan pendekatan konseptual, penulis mencoba merujuk kepada pandangan-pandangan para ahli hukum untuk memahami secara benar dan komprehensif terhadap konsep hukum progresif. Kesimpulan dari tulisan ini adalah bahwa putusan Mahkamah Konstitusi No. 46/PUU-VIII/2010 telah mencerminkan semangat hukum progresif.
Commissioning experiment for joint physical and numerical analysis
Authors: А.А. Gaisin
Published: July 2019

This work is devoted to carrying out commissioning experiments to verify the acceptability of the mathematical model, computational grid and boundary conditions for numerical modeling of fluid flow in the hydrodynamic flow regulators. Verification of a numerical experiment was conducted using laboratory studies. The physical experiment was constructed in a reversed hydraulic tray. Measurements of local velocities in the outlet section of the diffuser was performed in the control points using utrirovannoe tube Prandtl-Pitot. Numerical simulation was performed in STAR-CMM+. The model is based on threedimensional unsteady Reynolds equations. Turbulence was modelled with standard k-ε model. The calculation method is implicit. Modeling free-surface flow was carried out with the use VOF two-phase interaction with the gravitational component. Boundary conditions were taken as the hydrostatic pressure for the input and the output section of the experimental model, the velocity on the inner walls of the model, which was assumed to be zero, and the absolute roughness of all surfaces. The results of the value of local velocities showed good agreement with experimental values. The studies confirmed the effectiveness of joint physical and numerical experiment, which allows to reduce the number of model studies. Analysis of the values obtained in numerical and physical experiments, allowed us to conclude that numerical simulation agrees well with experimental data with an error of less than 5 %. As a result of the physical experiment proved the correctness of the simulation of fluid flow in diffusers at the exit of the flow in the downstream in the software package STAR-CCM+.
The conditions and future trends of the reconstruction of the heating and ventilation systems in Moscow schools
Authors: V.I. Sinitcyn
Published: July 2019

The article discusses the condition of water and air systems heating and ventilation in schools of Moscow. The advantages and disadvantages of such systems, as well as recommendations for their reconstruction. To ensure the standard conditions of the microclimate in the buildings of schools, in most cases, used air heating system combined with ventilation. Despite some attractiveness of systems of water heating, the question remains, discussed in the article, the solution of which depends on their mass application in the reconstruction of schools. To address this issue it is advisable two in the same design schools to mount in one air, the other with water heating, a comparative thermal tests in the course of the year, to compare the cost of their construction. The article noted the shortcomings of projects and equipment can be taken into account when designing and developing new solutions to systems of heating and ventilation of schools.
The technology of durability improvment of concrete with the modern additives
Authors: A.V. CHikin
Published: July 2019

The article describes the properties of increased durability of concrete, concrete products, designs. It is noted that the composition of the concrete mix largely determines the permeability of concrete. In this case, the main indicators of the composition of the mixture are: water-cement ratio, cement consumption, the ratio of aggregates and cement, and coarse and fine aggregates. Consideration of problems of improvement of durability should be two aspects: study on the characteristics of the environment and identify the leading factors of the impact of the environment on the reinforcement and concrete, especially for reinforced concrete structures in General, the study of the mechanism and kinetics of corrosion processes and development on this basis of methods of increasing durability of concrete and reinforced concrete in aggressive environments. It is noted that one of the most important properties of concrete affecting its durability is permeability of concrete. Describes ways to improve the water resistance of concrete, reduce its water absorption. The calculated dependences for determination of properties of concrete.
Breeding and biotechnology achievements in potato growing of Tajikistan
Authors: K. Partoev
Published: July 2019

In the conditions of Tajikistan within more than 10 years thanks to combinations of methods of traditional breeding and biotechnology are received new perspective varietyes of a potato, and also process of reception of the improved seed material is adjusted. On the basis of a combination of methods of breeding and biotechnology are received of new varietyes of a potato: «Tajikistan», «Rasht», «Fajzabad», «Dusti» and «Academies of Sciences-1» («АN-1»), which on productivity exceed a standard variety «Cardinal» in 11...71 %. The new variety of a potato «Tajikistan», which planting in different areas of the Republic on the area more than 1500 hectares is especially high-yielding. Features, of this new variety still consists that unlike other varietyes of a potato in its tubers contains 3...5 mg/% of the threevalent iron, so necessary element for a human body.
Requirements for agricultural production and environmental management in the conditions of the Republic of Azerbaijan
Authors: S.M. Shahmaliyeva
Published: July 2019

The article was justified the development and introduction of irrigated agriculture watersaving technologies aimed at improving the efficiency of irrigation water use. With the advent of irrigated land in the village Gilyazi of modern sprinkler technologies, there was a need for its adaptation soil and climatic conditions of the region, which was the basis for carrying out research work on the sciencebased technologies with modern irrigation sprinkler Valley machines and circular front steps. Found that machines with circular Valley, there are two modifikacija: towed and nabukera (stationary) system of Valley. The number of support trucks: abuccima – up to 24 towed up to 9. Machine length, m: abuccima – to 857, towed up to 457. Water consumption 6...220 l/s (conditional limitation). The pressure at the hydrant...to 0.13 MPa 1.0 (although 1.0 MPa is very high pressure and normal pressure is in the range of 0.4...0.5 MPa). The average intensity of precipitation: 60...100 mm/h or 1...of 1.67 mm/min (sometimes more or less. depends on average rate of irrigation and type of sprinklers). Was done scientific justification on the selection of sprinklers Valley for irrigation of agricultural crops in the Khizi district of Azerbaijan Republic. Described terms of conducting research. The main limitations on the conditions of use of machines such as Valley.
Evaluation and efficacy of stimulation of innovative activity in Volgograd region
Authors: M.V. Parfyonova
Published: July 2019

The subject of the study is the small and mediuThe subject of the study is the small and medium enterprises in the Volgograd region is one of the main priorities of the state policy in the region. Particular attention is paid to measures of state support of small and medium-sized enterprises of the Volgograd region, and revealed their effectiveness. Consideration of state support of small and medium predprinimatelstva Volgogradskoy area. Based on this analysis, the authors assess the prospects for business development in the area. Stimulating innovation Volgograd region takes many forms and uses a variety of methods and tools, but a common understanding of the composition and content of the theory and practice of stimulation has not been reached. First of all, it concerns the state plays a crucial role in the development and implementation of methods and tools to stimulate innovation area, as well as its legislative and resource provision. The main conclusions of the study is the targeted development of innovation Volgograd region, which requires a clear understanding of the forms, methods and tools of its stimulation, establishing a clear relation between these concepts.
2,3-Dibutoxynaphthalene-based tetralactam macrocycles for recognizing precious metal chloride complexes
Authors: Wang Li-Li , Tu Yi-Kuan , Yao Huan , Jiang Wei
Published: July 2019

Two new tetralactam macrocycles with 2,3-dibutoxynaphthalene groups as sidewalls have been synthesized and characterized. The macrocycle containing isophthalamide bridges can bind square-planar chloride coordination complexes of gold(III), platinum(II), and palladium(II) in CDCl3, while the macrocycle with 2,6-pyridine dicarboxamide bridging units cannot. This may be due to the shrunken cavity caused by intramolecular hydrogen bonds in the latter tetralactam macrocycle. The binding of the isophthalamide-based macrocycle is mainly driven by hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions. This naphthalene-based macrocycle has similar binding affinities to all the three abovementioned precious metal chloride complexes. This is in contrast to the fact that the tetralactam macrocycle with anthracene as the sidewalls only show good binding affinities to AuCl4−. The superior binding to all three complexes may be due to the conformational diversity of the naphthalene-based macrocycle, which make it conformationally adaptive to maximize the binding affinities. In addition, the macrocycle shows fluorescent quenching when adding the chloride metal complexes in its solution and may be used as a fluorescent sensor for the detection of these coordination complexes.
DEBT FINANCING AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION: EVIDENCE FROM CHINA
Authors: Xin Kuang , Sun Yuchun , Zhang Ran , Liu Xiao
Published: July 2019

The availabilities of debt for Chinese firms have been increased since 2008 due to the expansionary monetary policies. These policies triggered concerns over the impact of debt financing on firms’ technological innovation activities. Based on a sample of 225 listed computer and telecommunications equipment firms in China within 2008-2015, this study explored the effect of debt financing on two types of technological innovation, namely radical and incremental innovation. Specifically, both the direct effect of debt financing on technological innovation and its moderating effect on the relationship between R&D intensity and technological innovation were investigated. Results of this study reveal that radical innovation decreases with debt financing at decreasing rates, while incremental innovation is not affected by debt financing itself. In addition, debt financing interacted with R&D intensity exerts positive effect on both radical and incremental innovation. This study adds meaningful insights to the literature on financing technological innovation and builds a bridge connecting macroeconomic policies to firm activities.
The Global Magneto-Ionic Medium Survey: Polarimetry of the Southern Sky from 300 to 480 MHz
Authors: Wolleben M. , Landecker T. L. , Carretti E. , Dickey J. M. , Fletcher A. , McClure-Griffiths N. M. , McConnell D. , Thomson A. J. M. , Hill A. S. , Gaensler B. M. , Han J.-L. , Haverkorn M. , Leahy J. P. , Reich W. , Taylor A. R.
Published: July 2019

Much data on the Galactic polarized radio emission has been gathered in the last five decades. All-sky surveys have been made, but only in narrow, widely spaced frequency bands—and the data are inadequate for the characterization of Faraday rotation, the main determinant of the appearance of the polarized radio sky at decimeter wavelengths. We describe a survey of polarized radio emission from the southern sky, aiming to characterize the magneto-ionic medium, particularly the strength and configuration of the magnetic field. This work is part of the Global Magneto-Ionic Medium Survey (GMIMS). We have designed and built a feed and receiver covering the band 300–900 MHz for the CSIRO Parkes 64 m Telescope. We have surveyed the entire sky between decl. −90° and +20°. We present data covering 300–480 MHz with angular resolution 81′–45′. The survey intensity scale is absolutely calibrated, based on measurements of resistors at known temperatures and on an assumed flux density and spectral index for Taurus A. Data are presented as brightness temperatures. We have applied Rotation Measure Synthesis to the data to obtain a Faraday depth cube of resolution 5.9 rad m−2, sensitivity of 60 mK of polarized intensity, and angular resolution 1.°35. The data presented in this paper are available at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre.
OSSOS. XV. Probing the Distant Solar System with Observed Scattering TNOs
Authors: Kaib Nathan A. , Pike Rosemary , Lawler Samantha , Kovalik Maya , Brown Christopher , Alexandersen Mike , Bannister Michele T. , Gladman Brett J. , Petit Jean-Marc
Published: July 2019

Most known trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) that gravitationally scatter off the giant planets have orbital inclinations that are consistent with an origin from the classical Kuiper Belt; however, a small fraction of these “scattering TNOs” have inclinations that are far too large (i > 45°) for this origin. These scattering outliers have previously been proposed to be interlopers from the Oort cloud or evidence of an undiscovered planet. Here we test these hypotheses using N-body simulations and the 69 centaurs and scattering TNOs detected in the Outer Solar Systems Origins Survey and its predecessors. We confirm that observed scattering objects cannot solely originate from the classical Kuiper Belt, and we show that both the Oort cloud and a distant planet generate observable highly-inclined scatterers. Although the number of highly-inclined scatterers from the Oort Cloud is ∼3 times less than observed, Oort cloud enrichment from the Sun’s galactic migration or birth cluster could resolve this. Meanwhile, a distant, low-eccentricity 5 M
⊕ planet replicates the observed fraction of highly-inclined scatterers, but the overall inclination distribution is more excited than observed. Furthermore, the distant planet generates a longitudinal asymmetry among detached TNOs that is less extreme than often presumed and its direction reverses across the perihelion range spanned by known TNOs. More complete models that explore the dynamical origins of the planet are necessary to further study these features. With well-characterized observational biases, our work shows that the orbital distribution of detected scattering bodies is a powerful constraint on the unobserved distant solar system.
The Measured Impact of Chromatic Atmospheric Effects on Barycentric Corrections: Results from the EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph
Authors: Blackman Ryan T. , Ong 王 加 J. M. Joel 冕 , Fischer Debra A.
Published: July 2019

One source of error in high-precision radial velocity measurements of exoplanet host stars is chromatic change in Earth’s atmospheric transmission during observations. Mitigation of this error requires that the photon-weighted barycentric correction be applied as a function of wavelength across the stellar spectrum. We have designed a system for chromatic photon-weighted barycentric corrections with the EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph and present results from the first year of operations, based on radial velocity measurements of more than 103 high-resolution stellar spectra. For observation times longer than 250 s, we find that if the chromatic component of the barycentric corrections is ignored, a range of radial velocity errors up to 1 m s−1 can be incurred with cross-correlation, depending on the nightly atmospheric conditions. For this distribution of errors, the standard deviation is 8.4 cm s−1 for G-type stars, 8.5 cm s−1 for K-type stars, and 2.1 cm s−1 for M-type stars. This error is reduced to well-below the instrumental and photon-noise limited floor by frequent flux sampling of the observed star with a low-resolution exposure meter spectrograph.
Exploring the Human Factors Affecting Health Service Managers: A Qualitative Study
Authors: Ranjbar Mansour , Neishabouri Masoumeh , Heidari Gorji Mohammad Ali
Published: July 2019

BACKGROUND: In recent decades, managing health-service systems has faced multiple challenges. Identifying and resolving these challenges promote the efficiency and effectiveness of hospital activities. AIM: The present study aimed to explore the human factors affecting health service managers.MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this qualitative study, in-depth unstructured interviews were conducted with 29 employees who were in close contact with the health service managers. All the interviews were transcribed verbatim. Data were collected using purposeful sampling and were analysed using conventional content analysis via MAXQDA software.RESULTS: A group of 29 participants were interviewed (male 65.5%, female 34.4%). "Managing managers" has been identified as the primary theme with four supporting secondary themes including the inappropriate appointment of managers, the impact of human and social needs of managers, influential employees, and disrupting organisational communications. These are the challenges faced by managers in managing human resources in health-service organisations.CONCLUSION: Results showed that employees manage their managers within the organisation so that they can prevent managers from concentrating on their management affairs and tasks resulting in the distortion of management practices. The results of this study can help the key policy makers and planners in health-service organisations to guide the organisation to pursue its goals through appointing appropriate managers and identifying influential employees.
The Comparison of RhoC and PI3K Gene Expression on the Breast Cancer Tissue and Benign Tumour Tissue
Authors: Arisanty Dessy , Harahap Wirsma Arif , Khambri Daan , Rustam Rony , Aliska Gestina , Achyar Afifatul , Menra Juane Plantika
Published: July 2019

BACKGROUND: The expression of a gene is a process that conveys information of genes to synthesise gene product is functional. Alterations of the molecular biology in breast cancer are very complex because of many factors play a role in the tumorigenesis. RhoC is a prometastases gene. The PI3K gene is crucial in the regulation of multiple cellular functions, including cell growth, proliferation, metabolism and angiogenesis.AIM: This study aims to compare of RhoC and PI3K gene expression on the breast cancer tissue and benign tumour tissue.MATERIAL AND METHODS: Expression of the RhoC and PI3K genes was carried out with qPCR. The absolute quantification method was using breast cancer tissue. As a comparison, benign tumours (FATs) tissue was carried out. The standard curves were obtained from cloning target genes, which were inserted into the gGEMT-easy vector from E. coli. The gene expression data was carried out by t-test to see the mean difference between the expression of breast cancer tissue and benign tumours (FATs) with a value of p ≤ 0.005 in RhoC and PI3K gene expression. And the relationship between expressions was done by Pearson correlation test.RESULTS: The results showed that it was found that PI3K gene expression on breast cancer tissue was higher than the number in a benign tumour (fibroadenoma mammae) as an endogenous control. And also, the expression of RhoC is much lower on breast cancer tissue compared with a benign tumour. CONCLUSION: This study concluded that expression of RhoC affects the expression of PI3K so that the thing this is what causes the proliferation and began to provide support aggressive cancer cells in the breast.
Evaluation of Pregnancy Outcomes at Advanced Maternal Age
Authors: Radoń-Pokracka Małgorzata , Adrianowicz Beata , Płonka Magdalena , Danił Paulina , Nowak Magdalena , Huras Hubert
Published: July 2019

AIM: The study aimed to investigate the association between advanced maternal age (AMA) and the risk of adverse maternal, perinatal and neonatal outcomes about parity in singleton pregnancies.METHODS: We retrospectively analysed 950 women who gave birth in the Department of Obstetrics and Perinatology of the University Hospital in Kraków for six months (between 1st January and 30th June 2018). The patients were divided into 3 groups according to their age (30-34 years old, 35-39 years old and over 40 years old). Each of these groups was subsequently subdivided into 2 groups depending on parity (primiparae and multiparae). Maternal, perinatal and neonatal outcomes were compared between the groups and the subgroups.RESULTS: Comparison of the three age groups revealed that advanced maternal age might constitute a predisposing factor for preterm birth, caesarean section and large for gestational age (LGA). From these parameters, statistical significance was reached in case of greater risk of LGA (OR = 2.17), caesarean section (OR = 2.03) and elective C-section (OR = 1.84) in women over 40 years old when compared to the patients aged 30-34. Furthermore, AMA increases the risk of postpartum haemorrhage (OR = 6.43). Additionally, there is a negative correlation between maternal age and gestational age at delivery (R = -0.106, p < 0.05).CONCLUSIONS: Advanced maternal age can undoubtedly be associated with several adverse perinatal outcomes. At the same time, the risk of perinatal complications begins to increase after the age of 35 but becomes significant in women aged ≥ 40.
GeoDarwin, an Open-Source Geological Data Management Tool
Authors: Lahogue Pascale , Herpers Jean-Marc , Theeten Franck , VandenSpiegel Didier
Published: July 2019

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) holds one of the largest world collections of geological samples and documents about Central Africa (Congo, Rwanda, Burundi), offering unique reference material. The Geology services of RMCA contain around 16,000 minerals, 300,000 rocks, 21,500 fossils, and 30,000 maps. Their Archives include field notes, books, maps, and aerial photography containing valuable complementary information.

GeoDaRWIN is an “in-house” solution developed by RMCA as a collections management system for geological collections. Created using Microsoft Access, the model is currently transferred to open source software’s consisting of a PostgreSQL database and a customizable web-interface based on the Symfony 3 framework. Development began in 2018 and is still ongoing. Around 12,000 samples, 29,000 documents, and 30,500 localizations are already in the database.

GeoDaRWIN manages three categories collection materials: 1) field observations with their localization (e.g., coordinates, lithostratigraphy, drilling, structural analysis), 2) samples (minerals, rocks, fossils) and the results of their analysis (e.g., constituent minerals of rocks, heavy minerals, granulometry, magnetic susceptibility), and 3) documents (e.g., maps, archives, aerial photos, satellite images, documentation). In the model, these three types of information (field observations, samples, and documents) retain the existing relationships between them.

The aim of the project is to centralize all data in a single system on a service that can be available both on internet and intranet. It thus offers a common relational data model for these different geological items. The emphasis has been set on the integration of a hierarchical thesaurus of keywords, which can be mapped to several international vocabularies (e.g., INSPIRE, GEMET, examples coming from the GeoSciML documentation).

A Github repository of the database web interface in Symfony 3.4 is available at: https://github.com/naturalsciences/ natural_heritage_geology.

This system aims also to be compliant with the central data portal developed by the Royal Museum for Central Africa, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, and Meise Botanical Garden. This portal will provide a common gateway to Belgian scientific data, one of the objectives of the project “Natural Heritage”, along with the development of databases for biological data (database called “DaRWIN”, more info on poster “DaRWIN, Open Source system for collections data management”) and geological data (“GeoDaRWIN”). See more info about project “Natural Heritage” in the poster "NaturalHeritage: Bridging Belgian Natural History Collections".
Discovering Patterns of Biodiversity in Insects Using Deep Machine Learning
Authors: Earl Chandra , White Alexander , Trizna Michael , Frandsen Paul , Kawahara Akito , Brady Sean , Dikow Rebecca
Published: July 2019

Museum specimens have enormous potential for use in a broad range of biodiversity and evolutionary questions, but their data are typically accessible only to researchers who can physically visit collections facilities. Recent digitization efforts of collections provide new modes of access and collaboration to enrich biodiversity knowledge, and remarkable progress is now being made in assembling a corpus of imaged specimens and their associated labels. The Smithsonian Digitization Program Office recently partnered with the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), Department of Entomology to mass-digitize their bumblebee (genus Bombus) collection. Digital images were captured from more than 45,000 specimens and labels were transcribed by volunteers through the Smithsonian Transcription Center. More than 10,000 of these specimens are not yet identified to subgenus or species. We present deep learning models (specifically, convolutional neural networks) that can classify specimens to subgenus (NMMH has 15 subgenera) and species (NMNH has 178 species). Both models average greater than 90% accuracy even when trained on a small number of input images (tens of images per class). Beyond taxonomic classification, we explore how we can link our models to traditional morphological characters, biogeographical data, digitized scientific literature, and external image datasets to further our understanding of biodiversity.
Infrastructure for Long-term Preservation and OCR Analysis of Herbarium Images
Authors: Cazenave Nicolas
Published: July 2019

Herbaria hold large numbers of specimens: approximately 22 million herbarium specimens exist as botanical reference objects in Germany, 20 million in France and about 500 million worldwide. High resolution digital images of these specimens take up substantial bandwidth and disk space. New methods of extracting information from the specimen labels have been developed using OCR (Optical character recognition) techniques, but the exploitation of this technology for biological specimens is particularly complex due to the presence of biological material in the image with the text, the non-standard vocabularies, alongside the variation and age of the fonts. Much of the information is handwritten and natural handwriting pattern recognition is a less mature technology than OCR. Today, our system (eTDR-European Trusted digital Repository) provides the OCR technology (using Tesseract software) adapted to the requirements of herbarium specimen images and requires minimal installation in each institution. This is what we propose to make available to botanists with our portal.

The goal for a museum is to be able to submit a large number of scanned images easily to a long-term archiving system in order to automatically obtain OCR texts and retrieve them by a full text search on an open data portal.

Most of the images are provided for reuse through CC-BY licenses. In each case, the rights of reuse associated with the data are specified in associated metadata.

This pilot was an opportunity to test the long-term storage service eTDR provided by CINES. The services (B2SAFE, B2Handle) developed by EUDAT were used to facilitate the transfer of data to the storage repository and to provide indexing services for access to that repository.

This workflow that has been tested for the european project ICEDIG is presented as a poster: See the document (Suppl. material 1).
Methods, New Software Tools, and Best Practices for Developing High-quality Training Data for Machine Learning-based Image Analysis in Biodiversity Research
Authors: Stucky Brian , Brenskelle Laura , Guralnick Robert
Published: July 2019

Recent progress in using deep learning techniques to automate the analysis of complex image data is opening up exciting new avenues for research in biodiversity science. However, potential applications of machine learning methods in biodiversity research are often limited by the relative scarcity of data suitable for training machine learning models. Development of high-quality training data sets can be a surprisingly challenging task that can easily consume hundreds of person-hours of time. In this talk, we present the results of our recent work implementing and comparing several different methods for generating annotated, biodiversity-oriented image data for training machine learning models, including collaborative expert scoring, local volunteer image annotators with on-site training, and distributed, remote image annotation via citizen science platforms. We discuss error rates, among-annotator variance, and depth of coverage required to ensure highly reliable image annotations. We also discuss time considerations and efficiency of the various methods. Finally, we present new software, called ImageAnt (currently under development), that supports efficient, highly flexible image annotation workflows. ImageAnt was created primarily in response to the challenges we discovered in our own efforts to generate image-based training data for machine learning models. ImageAnt features a simple user interface and can be used to implement sophisticated, adaptive scripting of image annotation tasks.
Specimen Data Refinery: A landscape analysis on machine learning, computer vision and automated approaches to capture specimen metadata
Authors: Livermore Laurence , Cubey Robert
Published: July 2019

Capturing data from specimen images is the most viable way of enriching specimen metadata cheaply and quickly compared to traditional digitisation. Advances in machine learning and computer vision-based tools, and their increasing accessibility and affordability, are greatly increasing the potential to take automated measurements and capture other data from specimens themselves, as well as to transcribe label data.

More sophisticated segmentation of images allows us to find parts of interest: particular labels; individual specimens on a slide; or barcodes. Following segmentation, there is the potential to use colour analysis of specimens to perform conditional checking, such as looking for bad cases of verdigris in pinned insects or discoloration of gum-chloral mountant. Automating measurements and landmark analysis of specimens can be used to create trait datasets, all of which will enrich our knowledge of specimens. Segmentation of labels can allow us to cluster similar labels based on their visual properties including colour, shape and patterns—this in turn can be used to make optical character recognition, handwriting recognition and manual transcription much more efficient. Atomising, validating and resolving label data will create structured label data that can be more easily stored, searched and linked to other datasets.

We present a landscape analysis on the approaches, summarising previous work, and outline our plan to build future tools and systems in the SYNTHESYS+ Project as part of the Specimen Data Refinery. This will cover the sharing of tools, reducing barriers to access, integrating workflow engines into a software architecture that allows the components to be re-used and re-purposed with provenance data for repeatability, and conforms with the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability (FAIR) principles (Wilkinson et al. 2016).
Primary Biodiversity Data Gaps Assessment and Data Use for Decision-making: A West African Experience
Authors: Freeman Benedictus , Peterson A. Townsend
Published: July 2019

Primary biodiversity data, data documenting presences of particular species at particular sites at a point in time, available in standard digital formats, provide the basis for many quantitative studies that can inform effective and reliable national, regional, and global biodiversity conservation decisions. However, these datasets are often unavailable, incomplete, or unevenly distributed across regions and landscapes. We assessed the survey completeness and gaps in current knowledge of birds of West Africa, using digital, accessible primary biodiversity data, obtained from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and eBird. Additionally, using ecological niche modeling approaches, we modeled the current and potential future geographic distributions of a diverse suite of range-restricted and ecologically important bird species, and used the resulting models to identify priority areas for conservation and future surveys (Fig. 1). The survey completeness and gap analyses revealed marked spatial, seasonal, and temporal (historical) gaps and biases in the coverage of bird records across the region (Fig. 1). Well-surveyed sites were clustered around points of access such as major cities, roads, and national reserves or parks, mainly in Ghana, The Gambia, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon (Fig. 1). For our distributional analysis, we found broad present-day potential distributions with respect to climate. Future potential distributions, taking into account climate change processes, tended to be still-broader and more inclusive than present-day distributions, so climate-change-driven range losses and gains were minimal. Our models identified Liberia, southeastern Sierra Leone, southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, and southwestern Ghana to have high climate suitability in the present and in the future for most species. These results illustrate the spatial and temporal biases and gaps in West African bird data, and emphasize the need to promote high-quality biodiversity data mobilization and publication in West Africa and by extension the developing world. To address these biases at the regional level, research institutions and individuals need to engage in more systematic planning and biodiversity research, taking into account the potential for spatial, temporal, and seasonal biases.
Slow Science for a Sustainable Agriculture
Authors: Lybaert Anissa , Macklin James
Published: July 2019

“Data is the lifeblood of decision-making and the raw material for accountability.” (Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations)

Agriculture depends on living organisms: the resources that we grow and harvest (crops, livestock), the many naturally-occurring organisms that support agro-ecosystem services and those that are considered pests. Biodiversity represents the pool of resources upon which production systems are based. This ecosystem-based understanding of agriculture is fast replacing the simplistic input-output paradigm that was once prevalent. Reflecting this trend, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations created a Department of Climate, Biodiversity, Land and Water in 2016. This shift is also perceived in trends in research supporting agriculture, where research towards fast fixes (eg. genetic engineering) for food security and production sustainability, is steadily losing ground to more systemic approaches and “Slow Science”. This includes information derived from observation-based, long-term, multi-location data gathering from, for example, newly-termed Living Laboratories or Genomic Observatories. These activities generate a diverse set of data types complemented with extensive physical-chemical and climate data to enable more comprehensive and scientifically defensible assessments of biodiversity for policy and regulatory decision-making. However, the data associated with these entities can be very large, raising several challenges. First, a robust IT infrastructure must exist and persist to both store the data and to facilitate analysis often associated with high-performance computing. Next, this infrastructure must be supported by a data management policy, which responsibly dictates what data is preserved and for what time period as most institutions must be cognisant of their limited IT resources. The data, where not sensitive, must typically be openly shared to allow for use in other projects from local to global scale. This sharing relies on global data standards managed by a multitude of standard bodies and spread across a diverse set of data types. However, this new paradigm, especially with the constant advent of new technologies such as those implemented in genomic observatories and precision agriculture, has challenged standards bodies to keep up. Another challenge lies in the analysis and management of this big data, which relies on a new set of skills not traditionally found in agricultural science including data scientists and data curators. Finally, a major challenge to this “Slow Science” approach are the research funding models themselves that are not highly supportive of long-term, and often non-hypothesis-driven research. We will discuss these challenges and provide some examples of progress being made to embrace this new “Slow Science” agricultural paradigm.
Modeling spatial structure of thermokarst lake fields in permafrost of Western Siberia based on satellite images
Authors: Polishchuk Vladimir Yu. , Muratov Ildar N. , Polishchuk Yury M.
Published: July 2019

Deciphering the satellite images of medium and high spatial resolution of the northern territories of Western Siberia has been carried out using geoinformation system ArcGIS 10.3. Images of medium resolution Landsat-8 and high resolution Kanopus-V were used. Kanopus-V images alluded to determine the number and areas of small lakes, which are considered as intensive sources of methane emission into the atmosphere from thermokarst lakes. Data on the spatial characteristics of thermokarst lakes were obtained. Based on the integration of images of medium and high spatial resolution, a synthesized histogram of the distribution of lakes in a wide range of sizes was constructed, taking into account small lakes. The obtained histogram was approximated by a lognormal distribution law by the Pearson criterion with a probability of 0.99. Based on the geo-simulation approach, a new model of the spatial structure of the fields of thermokarst lakes is presented, taking into account the lognormal law of the lake size-distribution. Algorithms for modeling the spatial structure of the fields of thermokarst lakes are described. An example of modeling the field of thermokarst lakes with a lognormal law of their size-distribution is given. The practical applicability of the previously developed model with an exponential distribution of lakes in size, based on data from Landsat images, has been experimentally confirmed. The results can be used to obtain predictions of the dynamics of methane emissions from the thermokarst lakes of the Arctic zone of Northern Eurasia for the coming decades in the context of climate changes.