bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quality Preparation of Mathematics and Science Teachers to Integrate ICT
Authors: Mungai John Njoroge
Published: March 2015

This chapter clearly illustrates that emphasis on preparation of teachers to integrate ICT is gaining momentum in the education sector. Arguably, underpinning this emphasis is the convergence of assertions that ICT integration has the potential to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. Nonetheless, considering that the debate about effective teaching has overtime existed between two tensions, namely learner-centered and teacher-centered approaches, the additional concern now is how best to prepare teachers to integrate ICT. It is shown in this chapter that the best teaching approach is context specific since it facilitates the teachers' capacity to enhance student learning through quality teaching. The chapter reviews Teacher Professional Development programs in Sub-Saharan Africa and discusses what constitutes learner-centered education, ICT integration, and provides findings of a case study on preparation of science teachers using ICT.
The Role of Technology in Improving Quality of Teaching in Higher Education
Authors: Thindwa Harriet
Published: March 2015

Students are the future of any country. They are the leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. If teaching quality is undermined, so is the country's overall education system, and therefore, so is a country's future. In this chapter, the role of technology in improving quality of teaching in higher education, which has been declining over the years internationally including in the US, is reviewed. Databases EBSCOhost and Academic Search Complete were employed in this review. Empirical studies have revealed that e-learning technologies such as Moodle improve teaching quality. Given the advancement in technology, institutions of higher learning the world over are challenged to embrace technology as a strategy to engage students and enhance learning.
The MOOCs
Authors: LeCounte John F. , Johnson Detra
Published: March 2015

In this chapter, the authors present the rapid rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) derived from a yearning to create and make widely available materials and conditions for participatory learning and creative space dedicated to the open education. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were developed to provide open, meaning unrestricted, online courses without higher education cost constraints to students. This new technological platform was embraced, developed, and offered by some of the country's leading universities and institutions including Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Students may collaborate through strategic social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Further, according to LeCounte et al. (2014), the social media partnerships have been found to offer competitive advantages in terms of low cost and tremendous visibility to both corporations and institutions of higher learning.
Integrated Multi-Agent-Based eLearning System as a Strategy to Promote Access to Higher Education in Africa
Authors: Omulayi Geoffrey Nafukho , Wawire Peter Barasa
Published: March 2015

In this chapter, the authors present the integrated multi-agent-based eLearning system as a strategy to promote access to higher education in Africa. The integrated multi-agent eLearning system breaks through the traditional barriers of time, location, and the cost of delivering educational content. The power of the Internet in an educational context has always been that it simplifies access to content and contact with the experts. An agent-oriented methodology is used in this chapter to demonstrate how multi-agents can help to design an eLearning system. This integrated multi-agent-based eLearning system brings in merits of portability, convenience, collaboration, instant response, and multi-literacies, and provides solutions in cases where expertise is distributed all over Africa. Given the rising population in Africa and scarcity of qualified professors in higher education, the best strategy is to implement the designed eLearning system to help support the learning processes in higher education institutions.
Asynchronicity, Access, and Attainment
Authors: Bergman Mathew J. , Rose Kevin J. , Alagaraja Meera
Published: March 2015

In this chapter, the authors share specific ways in which the Organizational Leadership and Learning Program provides excellence in access, cost effectiveness, learning effectiveness, and faculty and student satisfaction. The program is designed to meet the needs of adult learners with some college but no degree and incorporates the use of asynchronous content delivery and faculty-student interaction. The exposure to course content via an online platform, interaction with students and faculty online, and the development of a learning community at a distance equips students not only with content knowledge, but also with technical prowess that is necessary in a technology-based workplace. Despite the relative ease of access and clear benefits of higher education, challenges still exist with educating an adult population. Therefore, it is essential that more adult friendly practices become integrated into the fabric of traditional four-year colleges and universities.
Twitplomacy
Authors: Su Shumin , Xu Mark
Published: March 2015

Social media, underpinned by mobile devices and smart-technology, is rapidly changing the way how people communicate. In the context of public diplomacy, micro-blogging-based diplomacy, e.g. Twitplomacy is emerging. Twitplomacy has been carried out by not only the central government of a state and relevant organizations, but also millions individuals globally. Twitplomacy has been seen as a new platform expanding the channels of public diplomacy. Its impact on diplomacy policy and international relations tends to be huge but too early to know and difficult to quantify. This paper uses microblogs collected from United States Embassy in China, examined the characteristics and functions of Twitplomacy, the participants and the motivation, as well as the effect of Twitplomacy. The results are insightful to both researchers and practitioners in the community of diplomacy and international relations.
Heuristic Based User Interface Evaluation of Mobile Money Application
Authors: Kumar Bimal Aklesh , Hussein Shamina
Published: March 2015

Mobile money is creating entirely new opportunity for mobile devices and provides functionalities similar to e-commerce. The nature of these devices pose two major limitations that are small screen size and lack of input capability, which makes designing applications for mobile devices a challenging task. It is important that the user interface is user-friendly and help users easily obtain their desired results. This study applied heuristic evaluation to examine the interface of SMS based mobile money application provided by vodafone called M-Paisa in Fiji. User interface evaluation of this application based on seven heuristic involving fifteen experts is described. The results show that there are minor usability problems with M-Paisa interfaces and we provide our recommendations to address them. Findings of this research can be applied to develop a set of guidelines to support the future design of effective interfaces for other mobile money applications.
Heuristics for the Periodic Mobile Piston Pump Unit Routing Problem
Authors: Andrade Marcos R. Q. , Ochi Luiz S. , Martins Simone L.
Published: March 2015

The Periodic Mobile Piston Pump Unit Routing Problem consists of, given a set of surface oil wells scattered over an onshore producing field, determining routes for each day of work, with limited duration work shift, that maximize the collection of oil carried by a mobile piston pump unit. This paper presents different construction and local search methods used in the composition of GRASP and ILS heuristics for the problem. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Semi-Automatic Systems for Exchanging Health Information
Authors: Emmanouil Dimitrios , Mourtzikou Antonia , Mantas John
Published: March 2015

The present paper deals with the topic of application possibilities of modern technology in daily practice, for the benefit of citizens. In particular, this work examines the implementation of e-Government at the local level in the field of e-Health for exchanging information. In the authors' introduction, will see how from the first calculating machines, the authors have arrived today up to the modern computer, to the Internet and ICT. Then, the modern technology led them up to the e-Governance at central, regional and local level. Initially the authors examine the international, European and Greek ICT environment; subsequently, within the same geographical contexts, the authors investigated the existence of e-services and e-health services to citizens. Finally, the authors focus on issues related to automated machines for helping citizens on health related issues.
The Role of Ontology Engineering in Linked Data Publishing and Management
Authors: Luczak-Rösch Markus , Simperl Elena , Stadtmüller Steffen , Käfer Tobias
Published: March 2015

In this article the authors evaluate the adoption and applicability of established ontology engineering results by the Linked Data providers' community. The evaluation relies on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods; in particular, the authors conducted an analytical survey containing structured interviews with data publishers in order to give an account of the current ontology engineering practice in Linked Data provisioning, and compared and expanded our findings with statistics on ontology development and usage provided by the Billion Triple Challenges datasets from 2012 (using the vocab.cc platform) and from 2014 and other related tools. The findings of the evaluation allow data practitioners and ontologists to yield a better understanding of the conceptual part of the LOD Cloud; and form the basis for the definition of purposeful, empirically grounded guidelines and best practices for developing, managing and using ontologies in the new application scenarios that arise in the context of Linked Data.
Societal Implications of Current and Emerging “Smart” Technologies
Authors: Machidon Octavian Mihai
Published: March 2015

While every new technology brings along the expected “blessings” for its users, there is also the thick end of the stick, namely the potential hazards and undesired effects that it might cause. Today, smart technologies are being integrated in all social environments, at home, school or work, shaping a new world in which there is a closer interaction and interdependence between human and machine than ever before. This paper identifies the social and ethical concerns that have emerged as a consequence of such changes, and it has been put together after research reviewing literature from various research domains. It addresses the potential implications of smart technologies: the psychological and physical effects on their users, the social changes that they generate, and the concerns of privacy and security.
Improve Distributed Client Lifecycle Control in ShadowStream
Authors: Yan Junhua , Tian Chen , Sun Jingdong , Mao Hanzi
Published: March 2015

ShadowStream is a novel Internet live streaming system that integrates performance evaluation as an intrinsic capability. An essential component in ShadowStream is distributed lifecycle control mechanism, which assigns each client a virtual arrival/lifetime to create a particular scenario to evaluate the performance of streaming system. The original design focuses on utilizing stable streaming viewers in physical world to guarantee the accuracy of ShadowStream, which, on the other hand, significantly limits the scale of the experiment. The authors' research develops a novel distributed client lifecycle control to get rid of restrictions caused by the limited number of stable viewers in live-testing streaming networks. The core idea of their research is to match the desired experimental scenario with real viewers' behavior in physical world. The result demonstrates that with the authors' methodology, the scale of experiments can be doubled.
The Professional Socialization of the Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer
Authors: Mazerolle Stephanie M. , Eason Christianne M. , Clines Stephanie , Pitney William A.
Published: March 2015

Context

The graduate assistant athletic trainer (AT) position often serves as one's first experience working independently as an AT and is also an important aspect of the professional socialization process. The socialization experiences of graduate assistant ATs have yet to be fully explored.

Objective

To understand the socialization process for graduate assistant ATs during their graduate experience.

Design

Qualitative study.

Setting

We conducted phone interviews with all participants.

Patients or Other Participants

A total of 25 graduate assistant ATs (20 women, 5 men) studying in 1 of 3 academic tracks: (1) accredited postprofessional athletic training program (n = 8), (2) postprofessional athletic training program (n = 11), or (3) a nonathletic training degree program (n = 6). The average age was 25 ± 5 years, and the median age was 24 years. Participants were certified by the Board of Certification for an average of 2 ± 0.4 years.

Data Collection and Analysis

We analyzed the data using a general inductive approach. Peer review, field notes, and intercoder reliability established trustworthiness. Data saturation guided participant recruitment.

Results

The ability to gain clinical independence as a practitioner was an important socialization process. Having the chance to develop a relationship with a mentor, who provided support, guidance, and more of a hierarchical relationship, was an important socializing agent for the graduate assistant AT. Participants used the orientation session as a means to understand the expectations and role of the graduate-assistant position. Academic coursework was a way to achieve better inductance into the role via the opportunity to apply classroom skills during their clinical practice.

Conclusions

Socializing the graduate assistant blends formal and informal processes. Transition to practice is a critical aspect of the profession; thus, supporting autonomous practice with directed mentoring can promote professional maturity.
Etiology of Pediatric Fever in Western Kenya: A Case–Control Study of Falciparum Malaria, Respiratory Viruses, and Streptococcal Pharyngitis
Authors: O'Meara Wendy P. , Mott Joshua A. , Laktabai Jeremiah , Wamburu Kabura , Fields Barry , Armstrong Janice , Taylor Steve M. , MacIntyre Charles , Sen Reeshi , Menya Diana , Pan William , Nicholson Bradly P. , Woods Christopher W. , Holland Thomas L.
Published: March 2015

In Kenya, more than 10 million episodes of acute febrile illness are treated annually among children under 5 years. Most are clinically managed as malaria without parasitological confirmation. There is an unmet need to describe pathogen-specific etiologies of fever. We enrolled 370 febrile children and 184 healthy controls. We report demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with Plasmodium falciparum, group A streptococcal (GAS) pharyngitis, and respiratory viruses (influenza A and B, respiratory syncytial virus [RSV], parainfluenza [PIV] types 1–3, adenovirus, human metapneumovirus [hMPV]), as well as those with undifferentiated fever. Of febrile children, 79.7% were treated for malaria. However, P. falciparum was detected infrequently in both cases and controls (14/268 [5.2%] versus 3/133 [2.3%], P = 0.165), whereas 41% (117/282) of febrile children had a respiratory viral infection, compared with 24.8% (29/117) of controls (P = 0.002). Only 9/515 (1.7%) children had streptococcal infection. Of febrile children, 22/269 (8.2%) were infected with > 1 pathogen, and 102/275 (37.1%) had fevers of unknown etiology. Respiratory viruses were common in both groups, but only influenza or parainfluenza was more likely to be associated with symptomatic disease (attributable fraction [AF] 67.5% and 59%, respectively). Malaria was overdiagnosed and overtreated. Few children presented to the hospital with GAS pharyngitis. An enhanced understanding of carriage of common pathogens, improved diagnostic capacity, and better-informed clinical algorithms for febrile illness are needed.
High or popular literature?: John Updike's Rabbit series
Authors: Petrič Jerneja
Published: March 2015

The article addresses the issue of the ambivalent relationship between high and popular literature. Relying on the criteria proposed by Ken Gelder, the author seeks to prove those artistic qualities of John Updike's Rabbit sequence that ensure his position among America's best writers of high literature.
The true voice of a Canadian expatriate: Mavis Gallant, Home truths (1981)
Authors: Kustec Aleksander
Published: March 2015

Mavis Gallant is a typical contemporary Canadian short story writer, who has strongly contributed to the formation and the proliferation of the contemporary Canadian short story. Her short story collection Home Truths (1981) is a good example of the exploration of time. Gallant has said on several occasions that she is not particularly interested in discovering typical Canadian elements, but she wishes, above all, to convey the truth. She does not get deeply engaged in the psychological development of her characters, but is interested in specific situations, in reconstructing the state of mind and heart, therefore, we find her writing on the edge of imagination and reality. Home Truths is about identity, alienation, and the importance of memory. These issues still are, 30 years after the publication of this collection, a matter of great concern among Canadians at home and abroad.
Il confronto tra culture nelle relazioni di viaggio del secondo settecento italiano: Alberto Fortis e Saverio Scrofani
Authors: Ricorda Ricciarda
Published: March 2015

Travel writing is a literary space particularly promoting moments of cross-cultural contact. In 18th century, Enlightenment new ideas encourage the production of odeporics in Italian literature, while writers and readersʼ interest for this genre increases conspicuously. The article mainly focuses on two travel books suggesting some remarkable research cues, Viaggio in Dalmazia by Alberto Fortis and Viaggio in Grecia by Saverio Scrofani, considering the travellersʼ specific approach and depiction of local people and analyzing their capability to turn these experiences into occasions to get closer to the Others and to represent them.
Henri Bergson - le maître à penser de l'æuvre romanesque d'Andrej Capuder
Authors: Turk Boštjan Marko
Published: March 2015

La présente étude se donne pour objectif de porter un regard critique sur les éléments du bergsonisme présents dans lʼensemble de lʼoeuvre romanesque dʼAndrej Capuder. En effet, ses romans sont ancrés dans lʼexpérience de la durée vécue ou la subjectivité, basée sur la négation du temps objectif que présente la coexistence de tous les termes bergsoniens impliqués dans lʼoeuvre. Le bergsonisme permet aux protagonistes de prendre, en sʼappuyant sur lʼélan vital, la conscience des aspects multiformes de leur propre personnalité face à lʼHistoire.
English drama at the German theatre in Ljubljana in the last decades of the Habsburg monarchy
Authors: Rubik Margarete
Published: March 2015

This article examines the English repertoire of the German theatre in Ljubljana in the last decades of the Habsburg monarchy and its reception by the local German newspaper, Laibacher Zeitung. It considers only drama, not operas or operettas. The English plays were, of course, performed in translation, in German, as opposed to the plays performed in the Slovenian language from the late 18th century on and especially within the Dramatično društvo circle established in 1867. The choice of performances gives interesting insights into the late 19th century attitude towards English culture as well as the self-image fostered by the German stage in Ljubljana.
Ethnic issues in the works of John Steinbeck
Authors: Vičič Polona
Published: March 2015

John Steinbeck is an author whose literary oeuvre has evoked a rich palette of reactions, from open admiration to total rejection. This divided reaction to his works is probably at least to some extent due to the fact that his works address several contentious issues, one of them being ethnic issues, which will be discussed in this paper.
Angst - Trauer - Zorn : "Emotionen" im Nibelungenlied
Authors: Javor Briški Marija
Published: March 2015

Im Fokus dieses Beitrags stehen die im Nibelungenlied dominierenden ŽEmotionenʼ Angst, Trauer und Zorn. Die besagten Emotionsdarstellungen sind u.a. Verhaltensmuster, die bestimmten kulturellen Konventionen unterliegen unddenen bestimmte Bedeutungen in der sozialen Interaktion zugeschrieben werden. Beleuchtet werden sie im Wesentlichen unter genderspezifischen Aspekten, in ihrem Verhältnis zur Rationalität und als Symbolhandlung. Ferner soll die Frage beantwortet werden, ob die Trauer stets eine Reaktion auf ein nicht umkehrbares Leid darstellt und der Zorn tatsächlich nur dann entsteht, wenn das Übel noch reversibel scheint.
The origins and impact of state force: the cases of Angela Vode and Igor Šentjurc
Authors: Miladinović Zalaznik Mira
Published: March 2015

Working without a theoretical background the article discusses two Slovenian intellectuals: Angela Vode and Igor Šentjurc. These two writers and publicists, though separated by sex and the centuries in which they were born,are bound by life experience, for the state and Party, along with its subordinates, the Secret Police (Geheim-Polizei), as well as legal authoritiesthat oppressed them, were fundamentally and continually a part of these two individualsʼ lives.
L'ascendant du doute hyperbolique sur le protoprologue des grandes tragedies corneliennes
Authors: Turk Boštjan Marko
Published: March 2015

L'étude présente se propose comme objectif de mettre en relief la fonction du protoprologue qui, en présence de son aspect d'archétype, prend le sens du bloc de construction architecturalement principal dans les drames majeurs de cet auteur. On trouve l'élément du protoprologue dans l'exposition des unités les plus importantes de l'opus de Corneille : Il détermine de façon essentielle l'entière pulsation de ce genre de théâtre, qui, par un chaos apparent, s'équilibre en une perspective rationnelle et cartésienne, typique du rationalisme du 17ème et des siècles suivants. Son facteur déterminant essentiel est le doute hyperbolique, qui ne se suffit pas à lui-même, mais devient l'outil méthodologique de la rationalisation des passions dévastatrices humaines, le tout se déroulant dans le domaine dans lequel la physiologie, au seuil de la nouvelle ère, vient à peine d'entrer, de toucher la frontière ou le contact entre le spirituel et l'organique.
Zwischen Abweichung und Stereotyp: Die Grossmutterfigur in den Zeitgenössischen deutschsprachigen Romanen Lady Berta von Annette Hug und Die schärfsten Gerichte der tatarischen Küche von Alina Bronsky
Authors: Jesenovec Barbara
Published: March 2015

The goal of the following contribution is to analyse the image of the grandmother in two modern German-language novels Lady Berta by Annette Hug and Die schärfsten Gerichte der tatarischen Küche by Alina Bronsky. The paper starts with presenting the historical and cultural development of the grandparent concept with special emphasis on the changing of traditional social role of the grandmother. This historical and sociological background functions as a basis for the following literary analyses of the grandmother's image and representation in the two contemporary novels of Hug and Bronsky. The comparison detects, as suggested by the title, that in spite of the deviations of the grandmother figures the traditional and stereotyped image prevails in the expectations of the granddaughters as well as the readers.
A leitura no espaço carcerário
Authors: Julião Elionaldo Fernandes , Paiva Jane
Published: March 2015

A leitura no Brasil tem sido objeto de estudos e de controvérsias. Levando em consideração as diversas questões que envolvem a discussão do tema no país, o artigo tem como objetivo apresentar algumas reflexões sobre a política de leitura implementada no sistema penitenciário nacional. Nesse contexto, o incentivo à leitura tem sido considerado pelo poder público, assim como a educação escolar, como um dos meios alternativos para a socialização do preso. Dessa forma, este artigo, em síntese, apresenta questões e reflexões sobre o papel e os significados que a leitura pode assumir no sistema penitenciário e procurará analisar os principais encaminhamentos políticos na área da leitura voltados ao cárcere, destacando, entre outros, fontes legais, projetos e perspectivas político-pedagógicas no contexto atual.
Violência contra o professor nas representações sociais de docentes
Authors: Beltrão Soares Michelle , Bezerra Machado Laêda
Published: March 2015

Este artigo analisa as representações sociais de violência contra o professor no espaço de escolas públicas e privadas da Região Metropolitana do Recife, enfatizando as formas ou tipos de violência que afetam esse grupo profissional e o modo como os docentes lidam com o fenômeno. Tomou-se como referencial a Teoria das Representações Sociais, de Serge Moscovici, especialmente a Teoria do Núcleo Central, idealizada por Jean-Claude Abric. Participaram desta etapa da investigação 20 professores, sendo 10 de escolas públicas estaduais e 10 de escolas privadas. Foram realizadas entrevistas com esses professores através de pranchas indutoras, o material foi tratado a partir da Análise de Conteúdo. Os resultados do estudo indicam a dimensão prática das representações desses professores, ou seja, o modo como lidam com a violência contra si no interior da escola e sala de aula, expresso através das origens da violência contra o professor, das manifestações da violência contra ele e das atitudes de enfrentamento diante do fenômeno.
O ENEM no contexto das políticas para o Ensino Médio
Authors: Alves Machado Paulo Henrique , Lima Elizeth Gonzaga dos Santos
Published: March 2015

Este artigo tem como objetivo compreender os determinantes do Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM), analisando a política de reforma do Ensino Médio e suas interfaces com a avaliação representada pelo exame, no contexto da promulgação da Lei de Diretrizes e Base no 9.394/96 até o novo ENEM em 2009. A metodologia utilizada partiu de uma abordagem qualitativa, tendo como procedimento a análise de conteúdo dos documentos, sistematizada através de três categorias (avaliação, trabalho e cidadania), cuja empiria constitui-se dos documentos: Parecer CEB nº 15/98, Resolução CNE nº 03/98, Bases legais dos PCNEM, além das portarias nº 438/98 e nº 109/2009. As análises dos documentos que sustentam a reforma do ensino médio mostraram que o ENEM é coerente com a política para essa etapa da Educação Básica, uma vez que seus princípios podem ser identificados tanto na Lei de Diretrizes e Base quanto nos demais documentos analisados. Os resultados da pesquisa também indicaram que os princípios valorizados pelos organismos multilaterais, nos anos de 1990, estão presentes na reforma do ensino médio e tem relação direta com a política neoliberal.
Imperialism, ANZAC nationalism and the Aboriginal experience of warfare
Authors: Gibson Padraic John
Published: March 2015

Aboriginal protest played a key role in undermining the celebratory settler-nationalism of the bicentennial in 1988. In the lead up to another major nationalist mobilisation, the centenary of the Gallipoli invasion on ANZAC Day 2015, extensive official efforts are being made to incorporate Aboriginal experiences into the day, through celebration of the role of Aboriginal people who served in Australia’s armed forces. This article provides a critical analysis of the 2014 NAIDOC theme as a way of exploring some of the tensions in this process. The NAIDOC theme, ‘Serving Country: Centenary and Beyond’, presented a continuity between Aboriginal soldiers in WW1 and Aboriginal warriors who fought in defence of their land during the 19th Century Frontier Wars. In contrast, this article argues that the real historical continuity is between the massacres on the frontier, which often involved Aboriginal troopers fighting for the colonial powers, and the invasions undertaken by Australian soldiers in WW1. New research documenting the horrific scale on which Aboriginal people were killed by Native Police in Queensland in the second half of the 19th Century is integrated with studies of the political economy of Australian settler-capitalism in this period. This analysis is used to demonstrate how capitalist class interests drove both the Frontier Wars and the development of an Australian regional empire, which was consolidated by the mobilisation of Australian troops in WW1.
Mate preferences toward agency and communion
Authors: Moroń Marcin
Published: March 2015

Agency and communion constitute two fundamental dimensions of social perception. Universal dimensions of mate preferences represent both agentic and communal content, but a direct test of mate preferences toward agency and communion is lacking. The present study examined preferences toward agentic and communal traits in mate preferences among 206 heterosexual individuals (112 females), analysing the role of the target's sex and actor's sexual strategy. Results showed that women demonstrated higher expectations toward agentic and communal traits in a potential partner than men. Preference for agency in short-term relationships did not differ from preferences toward agency and communion in long-term relationships, but preferences toward communion of partner in short-term relationships was significantly lower. These results were discussed in light of the signaling role of agency and communion in human mating behavior.
Sensitivities of Lagrangian modeling of mid-latitude cirrus clouds to trajectory data quality
Authors: Kienast-Sjögren E. , Miltenberger A. K. , Luo B. P. , Peter T.
Published: March 2015

Abstract. Simulations of cirrus are subject to uncertainties in model physics and meteorological input data. Here we model cirrus clouds, whose extinction has been measured with an elastic backscatter Lidar at Jungfraujoch research station in the Swiss Alps, and investigate the sensitivities to input data uncertainties (trajectory resolution, unresolved vertical velocities, ice nuclei number density and upstream specific humidity). Simulations with a microphysical stacked box model have been performed along trajectories derived from the high-resolution numerical weather prediction model COSMO-2 (2.2 km grid spacing). For the calculation of the trajectories we experimented with model wind fields at temporal resolutions between 20 s and 1 h. While the temporal resolution affects the trajectory path only marginally, it has a strong impact on the vertical velocity variance resolved along the trajectories, and therefore on the cooling rate distribution. In the present example, the temporal resolution of the wind fields must be chosen to be better than 5 min in order to resolve vertical velocities and cooling rates required to explain the measured extinction. The simulation improves slightly if the temporal resolution is increased further to 20 s. This means that on the selected day the cooling rate spectra calculated by COSMO-2 suffice to achieve agreement with the cirrus measurements. On that day cooling rate spectra are characterized bysignificantly lower vertical velocity amplitudes than those found previously in some aircraft campaigns (SUCCESS, MACPEX). A climatological analysis of the vertical velocity variance in the Alpine region based on COSMO-2 analyses and balloon sounding data suggests large day-to-day variability in small-scale temperature fluctuations. This demonstrates the necessity to apply numerical weather prediction models with high spatial and temporal resolutions in cirrus modeling, whereas using climatological means for the amplitude of the unresolved air motions does generally not suffice. The box model simulations further suggest that uncertainties in the upstream specific humidity (±10% of the model prediction) and in the ice nuclei number density are more important for the modeled cirrus cloud than the unresolved temperature fluctuations, if temporally highly resolved trajectories are used. For the presented case the simulations are incompatible with ice nuclei number densities larger than 20 L−1 and insensitive to variations below this value.
Assessment of the consistency among global microwave land surface emissivity products
Authors: Norouzi H. , Temimi M. , Prigent C. , Turk J. , Khanbilvardi R. , Tian Y. , Furuzawa F. A. , Masunaga H.
Published: March 2015

Abstract. The goal of this work is to intercompare four global land surface emissivity products over various land-cover conditions to assess their consistency. The intercompared land emissivity products were generated over a 5-year period (2003–2007) using observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer – Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I), the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI), and WindSat. First, all products were reprocessed in the same projection and spatial resolution as they were generated from sensors with various configurations. Then, the mean value and standard deviations of monthly emissivity values were calculated for each product to assess the spatial distribution of the consistencies/inconsistencies among the products across the globe. The emissivity products were also compared to soil moisture estimates and a satellite-based vegetation index to assess their sensitivities to changes in land surface conditions. Results show the existence of systematic differences among the products. Also, it was noticed that emissivity values in each product have similar frequency dependency over different land-cover types. Monthly means of emissivity values from AMSR-E in the vertical and horizontal polarizations seem to be systematically lower than the rest of the products across various land-cover conditions which may be attributed to the 01:30/13:30 LT overpass time of the sensor and possibly a residual skin temperature effect in the product. The standard deviation of the analyzed products was lowest (less than 0.01) in rain forest regions for all products and highest at northern latitudes, above 0.04 for AMSR-E and SSM/I and around 0.03 for WindSat. Despite differences in absolute emissivity estimates, all products were similarly sensitive to changes in soil moisture and vegetation. The correlation between the emissivity polarization differences and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values showed similar spatial distribution across the products, with values close to the unit except over densely vegetated and desert areas.
Thermal-based modeling of coupled carbon, water, and energy fluxes using nominal light use efficiencies constrained by leaf chlorophyll observations
Authors: Schull M. A. , Anderson M. C. , Houborg R. , Gitelson A. , Kustas W. P.
Published: March 2015

Abstract. Recent studies have shown that estimates of leaf chlorophyll content (Chl), defined as the combined mass of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b per unit leaf area, can be useful for constraining estimates of canopy light use efficiency (LUE). Canopy LUE describes the amount of carbon assimilated by a vegetative canopy for a given amount of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) and is a key parameter for modeling land-surface carbon fluxes. A carbon-enabled version of the remote-sensing-based two-source energy balance (TSEB) model simulates coupled canopy transpiration and carbon assimilation using an analytical sub-model of canopy resistance constrained by inputs of nominal LUE (βn), which is modulated within the model in response to varying conditions in light, humidity, ambient CO2 concentration, and temperature. Soil moisture constraints on water and carbon exchange are conveyed to the TSEB-LUE indirectly through thermal infrared measurements of land-surface temperature. We investigate the capability of using Chl estimates for capturing seasonal trends in the canopy βn from in situ measurements of Chl acquired in irrigated and rain-fed fields of soybean and maize near Mead, Nebraska. The results show that field-measured Chl is nonlinearly related to βn, with variability primarily related to phenological changes during early growth and senescence. Utilizing seasonally varying βn inputs based on an empirical relationship with in situ measured Chl resulted in improvements in carbon flux estimates from the TSEB model, while adjusting the partitioning of total water loss between plant transpiration and soil evaporation. The observed Chl–βn relationship provides a functional mechanism for integrating remotely sensed Chl into the TSEB model, with the potential for improved mapping of coupled carbon, water, and energy fluxes across vegetated landscapes.
Chemical footprints of anthropogenic nitrogen deposition on recent soil C : N ratios in Europe
Authors: Mulder C. , Hettelingh J.-P. , Montanarella L. , Pasimeni M. R. , Posch M. , Voigt W. , Zurlini G.
Published: March 2015

Abstract. Long-term human interactions with landscape and nature produced a plethora of trends and patterns of environmental disturbances in time and space. Nitrogen deposition, closely tracking energy and land use, is known to be among the main pollution drivers, affecting both freshwater as terrestrial ecosystems. We investigated the geographical distribution of nitrogen deposition and the impacts of accumulation on recent soil carbon to nitrogen ratios over Europe. After the Second Industrial Revolution (1880–2010), large landscape stretches characterized by different atmospheric deposition caused either by industrialized areas or by intensive agriculture emerged. Nitrogen deposition affects in a still recognizable way recent soil C : N ratios despite the emission abatement of oxidized and reduced nitrogen during the last two decades. Given the seemingly disparate land-use history, we focused on ~ 10 000 unmanaged ecosystems, providing evidence for a rapid response of nature to chronic nitrogen supply by atmospheric deposition.
Trace metal evidence for a poorly ventilated glacial Southern Ocean
Authors: Wagner M. , Hendy I. L.
Published: March 2015

Abstract. Glacial benthic δ13C and Δ14C measurements from the Atlantic Ocean have been interpreted to indicate the existence of a poorly ventilated Southern Ocean with greater CO2 and nutrient contents compared to present. Enhanced storage of CO2 in the deep ocean predicts that oxygen concentrations should have declined at the same time, although no unequivocal evidence for glacial Southern Ocean suboxia has yet been found. Here we take a novel approach by using concentrations of redox-sensitive trace metals to show that Southern Ocean sediments from two cores in the Atlantic sector were suboxic during deglaciation and the last glacial period, implying reduced ventilation and/or elevated export production that significantly altered deep water chemistry. In the Cape Basin, high concentrations of the authigenically deposited trace metal Re coincide with oldest Δ14C values at 3.8 km water depth in the Subantarctic Zone, indicating that poorest Southern Ocean ventilation occurred during the Last Glacial Maximum (~ 23–19 ka). Furthermore, trace metal results suggest that the vertical structure of the glacial Southern Ocean differed from modern deep water mass arrangement such that Lower Circumpolar Deep Water had lower O2 concentrations, and therefore was the likely reservoir of glacial CO2.
A NEW APPROACH FOR OPTICAL AND SAR SATELLITE IMAGE REGISTRATION
Authors: Merkle N. , Müller R. , Schwind P. , Palubinskas G. , Reinartz P.
Published: March 2015

Abstract. Over the last years several research studies have shown the high geometric accuracy of high resolution radar satellites like TerraSARX. Due to this fact, the impact of high resolution SAR images for image registration has increased. An aim of high accuracy image registration is the improvement of the absolute geometric accuracy of optical images by using SAR images as references. High accuracy image registration is required for different remote sensing applications and is an on-going research topic. The registration of images acquired by different sensor types, like optical and SAR images, is a challenging task. In our work, a novel approach is proposed, which is a combination of the classical feature-based and intensity-based registration approaches. In the first step of the method, spatial features, here roundabouts, are detected in the optical image. In the second step, the detected features are used to generate SAR like roundabout templates. In the third step, the templates are matched with the corresponding parts of the SAR image by using an intensitybased matching process. The proposed method is tested for a pair of TerraSAR-X and QuickBird images and a pair of TerraSAR-X and WorldView-2 images of a suburban area. The results show that the proposed method offers an alternative approach compared to the common optical and SAR images registration methods and it can be used for the geometric accuracy improvement of optical images.
GRAMMAR-SUPPORTED 3D INDOOR RECONSTRUCTION FROM POINT CLOUDS FOR “AS-BUILT” BIM
Authors: Becker S. , Peter M. , Fritsch D.
Published: March 2015

Abstract. The paper presents a grammar-based approach for the robust automatic reconstruction of 3D interiors from raw point clouds. The core of the approach is a 3D indoor grammar which is an extension of our previously published grammar concept for the modeling of 2D floor plans. The grammar allows for the modeling of buildings whose horizontal, continuous floors are traversed by hallways providing access to the rooms as it is the case for most office buildings or public buildings like schools, hospitals or hotels. The grammar is designed in such way that it can be embedded in an iterative automatic learning process providing a seamless transition from LOD3 to LOD4 building models. Starting from an initial low-level grammar, automatically derived from the window representations of an available LOD3 building model, hypotheses about indoor geometries can be generated. The hypothesized indoor geometries are checked against observation data - here 3D point clouds - collected in the interior of the building. The verified and accepted geometries form the basis for an automatic update of the initial grammar. By this, the knowledge content of the initial grammar is enriched, leading to a grammar with increased quality. This higher-level grammar can then be applied to predict realistic geometries to building parts where only sparse observation data are available. Thus, our approach allows for the robust generation of complete 3D indoor models whose quality can be improved continuously as soon as new observation data are fed into the grammar-based reconstruction process. The feasibility of our approach is demonstrated based on a real-world example.
DETECTION OF SINGLE STANDING DEAD TREES FROM AERIAL COLOR INFRARED IMAGERY BY SEGMENTATION WITH SHAPE AND INTENSITY PRIORS
Authors: Polewski P. , Yao W. , Heurich M. , Krzystek P. , Stilla U.
Published: March 2015

Abstract. Standing dead trees, known as snags, are an essential factor in maintaining biodiversity in forest ecosystems. Combined with their role as carbon sinks, this makes for a compelling reason to study their spatial distribution. This paper presents an integrated method to detect and delineate individual dead tree crowns from color infrared aerial imagery. Our approach consists of two steps which incorporate statistical information about prior distributions of both the image intensities and the shapes of the target objects. In the first step, we perform a Gaussian Mixture Model clustering in the pixel color space with priors on the cluster means, obtaining up to 3 components corresponding to dead trees, living trees, and shadows. We then refine the dead tree regions using a level set segmentation method enriched with a generative model of the dead trees’ shape distribution as well as a discriminative model of their pixel intensity distribution. The iterative application of the statistical shape template yields the set of delineated dead crowns. The prior information enforces the consistency of the template’s shape variation with the shape manifold defined by manually labeled training examples, which makes it possible to separate crowns located in close proximity and prevents the formation of large crown clusters. Also, the statistical information built into the segmentation gives rise to an implicit detection scheme, because the shape template evolves towards an empty contour if not enough evidence for the object is present in the image. We test our method on 3 sample plots from the Bavarian Forest National Park with reference data obtained by manually marking individual dead tree polygons in the images. Our results are scenario-dependent and range from a correctness/completeness of 0.71/0.81 up to 0.77/1, with an average center-of-gravity displacement of 3-5 pixels between the detected and reference polygons.
MULTI-SCALE BASED EXTRACION OF VEGETATION FROM TERRESTRIAL LiDAR DATA FOR ASSESSING LOCAL LANDSCAPE
Authors: Wakita T. , Susaki J.
Published: March 2015

Abstract. In this study, we propose a method to accurately extract vegetation from terrestrial three-dimensional (3D) point clouds for estimating landscape index in urban areas. Extraction of vegetation in urban areas is challenging because the light returned by vegetation does not show as clear patterns as man-made objects and because urban areas may have various objects to discriminate vegetation from. The proposed method takes a multi-scale voxel approach to effectively extract different types of vegetation in complex urban areas. With two different voxel sizes, a process is repeated that calculates the eigenvalues of the planar surface using a set of points, classifies voxels using the approximate curvature of the voxel of interest derived from the eigenvalues, and examines the connectivity of the valid voxels. We applied the proposed method to two data sets measured in a residential area in Kyoto, Japan. The validation results were acceptable, with F-measures of approximately 95% and 92%. It was also demonstrated that several types of vegetation were successfully extracted by the proposed method whereas the occluded vegetation were omitted. We conclude that the proposed method is suitable for extracting vegetation in urban areas from terrestrial light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. In future, the proposed method will be applied to mobile LiDAR data and the performance of the method against lower density of point clouds will be examined.
Long-term variability of storm surge frequency in the Venice Lagoon: an update thanks to 18th century sea level observations
Authors: Raicich F.
Published: March 2015

Abstract. Sea level observations made in the Venice Lagoon between 1751 and 1792 have been recovered, consisting of two time series of daily data on high and low waters in Venice and Chioggia. From comparisons with modern observations, the quality of the 18th century data appears to be good enough to allow a useful analysis. A composite time series of daily mean sea level is obtained by merging the 18th century data and 1872–2004 observations in Venice Punta della Salute. The absence of reliable information on vertical references prevents the connection of the two 18th century time series with each other and with modern observations. However, daily sea level anomalies relative to the mean sea level enable us to recognize storm surge events that appear to occur more frequently in the second half of the 18th century than in the late 19th and 20th centuries, particularly during the 1751–1769 period. The record-breaking storm surge of 4 November 1966 turns out to be a remarkable event even in comparison to the events extracted from the 18th century time series. Further work is required to fill the gap between the old and modern observations.