Effects of soil moisture and water depth on ERS SAR backscatter measurements from an Alaskan wetland complex

We conducted a preliminary investigation of the response of ERS C-band SAR backscatter to variations in soil moisture and surface inundation in wetlands of interior Alaska. Data were collected from 5 wetlands over a three-week period in 2007. Results showed a positive correlation between backscatter and soil moisture in sites dominated by herbaceous vegetation cover (r = 0.74, p < 0.04). ERS SAR backscatter was negatively correlated to water depth in all open (non-forested) wetlands when water table levels were more than 6 cm above the wetland surface (r = − 0.82, p < 0.001). There was no relationship between backscatter and soil moisture in the forested (black spruce-dominated) wetland site. Our preliminary results show that ERS SAR data can be used to monitor variations in hydrologic conditions in high northern latitude wetlands (including peatlands), particularly sites with sparse tree cover.     

Scientometric Study of the Progress and Development of e-Government Research During the Period 2000–2012

Many countries have implemented changes in public-sector management models, based on the strategic and intensive use of new information and communication technologies. From a critical standpoint, this paper analyzes and characterizes the contributions made by research in the field of e-government, identifying future areas of interest and potentially valuable methodologies. In addition, it compares research efforts focused on developing countries with those concerning developed economies, in order to identify research gaps and possibilities for improvement in the context of e-government research in developing countries. Diverse scientometric approaches are employed in this analysis of papers published by international journals listed in the SSCI index in the fields of Public Administration and of Information Science & Library Science. Our findings reveal the existence of various research gaps and highlight areas that should be addressed in future research, especially in developing countries. Indeed, the research approach to e-government remains immature, focusing on particular cases or dimensions, while little has been done to produce theories or models to clarify and explain the political processes of e-government. In addition, significant differences are found between the impact of scientific output and patterns of scientific production as regards developing and developed countries.     

A case study about the improvement of business process models driven by indicators

Organizations are increasingly concerned about business process model improvement in their efforts to guarantee improved operational efficiency. Quality assurance of business process models should be addressed in the most objective manner, e.g., through the application of measures, but the assessment of measurement results is not a straightforward task and it requires the identification of relevant indicators and threshold values, which are able to distinguish different levels of process model quality. Furthermore, indicators must support the improvements of the models by using suitable guidelines. In this paper, we present a case study to evaluate the BPMIMA framework for BP model improvement. This framework is composed of empirically validated measures related to quality characteristics of the models, a set of indicators with validated thresholds associated with modeling guidelines and a prototype supporting tool. The obtained data suggest that the redesign by applying guidelines driven by the indicator results was successful, as the understandability and modifiability of the models were improved. In addition, the changes in the models according to guidelines were perceived as acceptable by the practitioners who participated in the case study.     

Physical ergonomic hazards in highway tunnel construction: overview from the Construction Occupational Health Program

This report provides an overview of physical ergonomic exposures in highway construction work across trades and major operations. For each operation, the observational method “PATH” (Posture, Activity, Tools and Handling) was used to estimate the percentage of time that workers spent in specific tasks and with exposure to awkward postures and load handling. The observations were carried out on 73 different days, typically for about 4 h per day, covering 120 construction workers in 5 different trades: laborers, carpenters, ironworkers, plasterers, and tilers. Non-neutral trunk postures (forward or sideways flexion or twisting) were frequently observed, representing over 40% of observations for all trades except laborers (28%). Kneeling and squatting were common in all operations, especially tiling and underground utility relocation work. Handling loads was frequent, especially for plasterers and tilers, with a range of load weights but most often under 15 pounds. The results of this study provide quantitative evidence that workers in highway tunnel construction operations are exposed to ergonomic factors known to present significant health hazards. Numerous opportunities exist for the development and implementation of ergonomic interventions to protect the health and safety of construction workers.     

Hardness of preorder checking for basic formalisms

We investigate the complexity of preorder checking when the specification is a flat finite-state system whereas the implementation is either a non-flat finite-state system or a standard timed automaton. In both cases, we show that simulation checking is Exptime-hard, and for the case of a non-flat implementation, the result holds even if there is no synchronization between the parallel components and their alphabets of actions are pairwise disjoint. Moreover, we show that the considered problems become Pspace-complete when the specification is assumed to be deterministic. Additionally, we establish that comparing a synchronous non-flat system with no hiding and a flat system is Pspace-hard for any relation between trace containment and bisimulation equivalence, even if the flat system is assumed to be fixed.     

Interactive volume exploration for feature detection and quantification in industrial CT data

This paper presents a novel method for interactive exploration of industrial CT volumes such as cast metal parts, with the goal of interactively detecting, classifying, and quantifying features using a visualization-driven approach. The standard approach for defect detection builds on region growing, which requires manually tuning parameters such as target ranges for density and size, variance, as well as the specification of seed points. If the results are not satisfactory, region growing must be performed again with different parameters. In contrast, our method allows interactive exploration of the parameter space, completely separated from region growing in an unattended pre-processing stage. The pre-computed feature volume tracks a feature size curve for each voxel over time, which is identified with the main region growing parameter such as variance. A novel 3D transfer function domain over (density, feature size, time) allows for interactive exploration of feature classes. Features and feature size curves can also be explored individually, which helps with transfer function specification and allows coloring individual features and disabling features resulting from CT artifacts. Based on the classification obtained through exploration, the classified features can be quantified immediately.     

Interfacing human and computer with wireless body area sensor networks: the WiMoCA solution

Wireless Body Area Sensor Networks (WBASN) are an emerging technology enabling the design of natural human–computer interfaces (HCI). Automatic recognition of human motion, gestures, and activities is studied in several contexts. For example, mobile computing technology is being considered as a replacement of traditional input systems. Moreover, body posture and activity monitoring can be used for entertainment and health-care applications. However, until now, little work has been done to develop flexible and efficient WBASN solutions suitable for a wide range of applications. Their requirements pose new challenges for sensor network designs, such as optimizing traditional solutions for use as environmental monitoring-like applications and developing on-the-field stress tests. In this paper, we demonstrate the flexibility of a custom-designed WBASN called WiMoCA with respect to a wide range of posture and activity recognition applications by means of practical implementation and on-the-field testing. Nodes of the network mounted on different parts of the human body exploit tri-axial accelerometers to detect its movements. The advanced digital Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) based inertial sensor has been chosen for WiMoCA because it demonstrated high flexibility of use in many different situations, providing the chance to exploit both static and dynamic acceleration components for different purposes. Furthermore, the sensibility and accuracy of the sensing element is perfectly adequate for monitoring human movement, while keeping cost low and size compact, thus meeting our requirements. We implemented three types of applications, stressing the WBASN in many aspects. In fact, they are characterized by different requirements in terms of accuracy, timeliness, and computation distributed on sensing nodes. For each application, we describe its implementation, and we discuss results about performance and power consumption.

Service Science

This paper is a first exploration of the relationship between service science and Grid computing. Service science is the study of value co-creation interactions among entities, known as service systems. Within the emerging service science community, service is often defined as the application of competences (resources) for the benefit of another. Grid computing is the study of resource sharing among entities, known as virtual organizations, which solve complex business, societal, scientific, and engineering problems. Within the Grid computing community, service is sometimes defined as protocols plus behavior. Both Grid computing and service science are connecting academic, industry, government, and volunteer sector collaborators on a range of projects including eScience, healthcare, environmental sustainability, and more. This paper compares and contrasts the notions of resource, entity, service, interaction, and success criteria for the two areas of study. In conclusion, new areas for collaborative inquiry are proposed.     

Best practices for preventing musculoskeletal disorders in masonry: stakeholder perspectives

Brick masons and mason tenders report a high prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs), many of which can be prevented with changes in materials, work equipment or work practices. To explore the use of "best practices" in the masonry industry, NIOSH organized a 2-day meeting of masonry stakeholders. Attendees included 30 industry representatives, 5 health and safety researchers, 4 health/safety specialists, 2 ergonomic consultants, and 2 representatives of state workers' compensation programs. Small groups discussed ergonomic interventions currently utilized in the masonry industry, including factors affecting intervention implementation and ways to promote diffusion of interventions. Meeting participants also identified various barriers to intervention implementation, including business considerations, quality concerns, design issues, supply problems, jobsite conditions and management practices that can slow or limit intervention diffusion. To be successful, future diffusion efforts must not only raise awareness of available solutions but also address these practical concerns.