Methodological Workflow Research Articles

Assessing landscape changes associated to anthropic disturbances by means of the application of Structure from Motion photogrammetry using historical aerial imagery

In this paper we present a methodological workflow to obtain planimetric and topographic data from historical aerial photos using photogrammetric methods through Structure from Motion (SfM) and Multi-View Stereo (MVS) algorithms. This methodology is applied in two case studies located in the Upper Cinca River catchment (Southern Pyrenees). These sites have suffered a series of direct anthropogenic disturbances that have modified landscape topography. Specifically,topographic changes associated with the construction of a road and the extraction of materials from a pit quarry have been analysed. The resultant products extracted by the application of SfM-MVS are orthomosaics with a root mean square error (RMSE) between 0.5 and 1 m, and points clouds (topography) with a RMSE between 1 and 2 m. The topography before and after each of the impacts was compared with the objective to analyse the changes attributed to these disturbances. A simple minimum Level of Detection (minLoD) was estimated based on the RMSEs in order to distinguish potential real changes from those due to the noise ascribable to the uncertainty of the topographic data sets. The significance of both impacts is relevantin terms of topographic changes (from -20 to +15 m). The dominant topographic change (in extension) in the case of the road construction (51% of the surface) is extraction (i.e. erosion). In the case of the pit quarry, the dominant process is deposition (i.e. sedimentation; 27% of the area). The extension below the minLoD is around the 23% and 48%, respectively, indicating that the magnitude of the changesis substantially higher in the case of the road construction. In both cases the net volume is negative (-913,710 and -16,197 m3 in the case of the road and the quarry, respectively), that show the differences in terms of the extension of the processes and their magnitude in each case study. Finally, both impacts had a direct effect on landscape morphometry (e.g. changes in the slope and flow direction). The developed approach provides an opportunity to analysed and quantify landscape changes that may help to improve our understanding of the long-term evolution of the transfer of water and sediment through landscapes.

Benefits and limitations of three-dimensional printing technology for ecological research

BackgroundEcological research often involves sampling and manipulating non-model organisms that reside in heterogeneous environments. As such, ecologists often adapt techniques and ideas from industry and other scientific fields to design and build equipment, tools, and experimental contraptions custom-made for the ecological systems under study. Three-dimensional (3D) printing provides a way to rapidly produce identical and novel objects that could be used in ecological studies, yet ecologists have been slow to adopt this new technology. Here, we provide ecologists with an introduction to 3D printing.ResultsFirst, we give an overview of the ecological research areas in which 3D printing is predicted to be the most impactful and review current studies that have already used 3D printed objects. We then outline a methodological workflow for integrating 3D printing into an ecological research program and give a detailed example of a successful implementation of our 3D printing workflow for 3D printed models of the brown anole, Anolis sagrei, for a field predation study. After testing two print media in the field, we show that the models printed from the less expensive and more sustainable material (blend of 70% plastic and 30% recycled wood fiber) were just as durable and had equal predator attack rates as the more expensive material (100% virgin plastic).ConclusionsOverall, 3D printing can provide time and cost savings to ecologists, and with recent advances in less toxic, biodegradable, and recyclable print materials, ecologists can choose to minimize social and environmental impacts associated with 3D printing. The main hurdles for implementing 3D printing—availability of resources like printers, scanners, and software, as well as reaching proficiency in using 3D image software—may be easier to overcome at institutions with digital imaging centers run by knowledgeable staff. As with any new technology, the benefits of 3D printing are specific to a particular project, and ecologists must consider the investments of developing usable 3D materials for research versus other methods of generating those materials.

Towards Global-Scale Seagrass Mapping and Monitoring Using Sentinel-2 on Google Earth Engine: The Case Study of the Aegean and Ionian Seas

Seagrasses are traversing the epoch of intense anthropogenic impacts that significantly decrease their coverage and invaluable ecosystem services, necessitating accurate and adaptable, global-scale mapping and monitoring solutions. Here, we combine the cloud computing power of Google Earth Engine with the freely available Copernicus Sentinel-2 multispectral image archive, image composition, and machine learning approaches to develop a methodological workflow for large-scale, high spatiotemporal mapping and monitoring of seagrass habitats. The present workflow can be easily tuned to space, time and data input; here, we show its potential, mapping 2510.1 km2 of P. oceanica seagrasses in an area of 40,951 km2 between 0 and 40 m of depth in the Aegean and Ionian Seas (Greek territorial waters) after applying support vector machines to a composite of 1045 Sentinel-2 tiles at 10-m resolution. The overall accuracy of P. oceanica seagrass habitats features an overall accuracy of 72% following validation by an independent field data set to reduce bias. We envision that the introduced flexible, time- and cost-efficient cloud-based chain will provide the crucial seasonal to interannual baseline mapping and monitoring of seagrass ecosystems in global scale, resolving gain and loss trends and assisting coastal conservation, management planning, and ultimately climate change mitigation.

Simulating image-guided in situ bioprinting of a skin graft onto a phantom burn wound bed

Deep skin thermal wounds require skin excision and engraftment. Clinical treatment for deep skin wounds is the use of autologous split-thickness skin grafts. However, timely coverage of large-area burn wounds remains a significant challenge. Engineered skin tissue constructs aim to overcome the limitations of traditional clinical intervention. In this study, an in situ bioprinting-based methodological workflow is advanced to directly fabricate a custom engineered skin graft onto a skin burn phantom. To illustrate this modular approach, a burn phantom is first created by mold casting gelatin-alginate hydrogel material to simulate a burn wound bed with arbitrary 2D shape and uniform depth. The cast hydrogel phantom is then placed on the printer platform to host the to-be-printed skin graft. Next, a color image-based module is proposed to extract the contour of the burn wound. This is followed by implementing a contour calibration process based on fiducial markers to yield the real dimension and pose of the burn phantom. A new directed toolpath generation algorithm is detailed to generate a burn-specific toolpath for the microextrusion-based bioprinting process. Based on this method, the bioprinted cell-laden gelatin-alginate hydrogel filaments are precisely arranged in a meshed pattern that is bound by the burn phantom contour. Internal geometries defined by the filament and pore dimensional characteristics of the printed construct design can be controlled to promote cell viability, proliferation, and nutrient delivery. Printed cell-laden multi-layered constructs are evaluated for single filament and pore dimensional precision, alignment of filaments between layers, and positional accuracy of the filaments within the extracted contour. Finally, a 24-hour time course incubation study reveals that the printed constructs preserve their structural properties while cells proliferate and maintain their spatial positioning.

The Rise of New Alcoholic Games Among Adolescents and the Consequences in the Emergency Department: Observational Retrospective Study.

BackgroundThe links between the internet and teenager behavior are difficult situations to control and may lead to the development of new and excessive methods of drinking alcohol during alcoholic games. Findings indicate that reported cases are very useful sources for better understanding of alcoholic games, yielding successful measures promoting health among adolescents. Admittance of adolescents to hospital emergency departments (EDs) after consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol has become the norm in developed countries. The harmful effects of acute alcohol abuse are reported in this paper.ObjectiveThe aim of this work was to investigate the close connections between new drinking behaviors among adolescents and study the increase in new alcoholic games, together with the challenges that cause acute alcohol intoxication, the influence of the internet and social networks, and their consequences for public health services.MethodsData came from prehospital and intrahospital admissions attributable to alcohol consumption. From 2013 to 2015, 3742 patients were admitted to EDs due to acute alcohol intoxication: 830 of them were aged 15 to 30 years, and 225 were adolescents and young adults between 15 and 20 years who had been playing alcoholic games. Retrospectively, diagnostic data associated with extrahospital anamneses were selected by one of the hospital management information systems, Qlik. As a result of our previous experience, questionnaires and face-to-face interviews were performed at a later stage, when a clinical audit for intoxicated adolescent patients was described, with the overall goal of establishing a potential methodological workflow and adding important information to research carried out so far.ResultsBetween 2013 and 2015, 830 young patients aged 15 to 30 years were admitted to EDs for acute alcohol intoxication. About 20% (166/830) of the sample confirmed that they had drunk more than 5 alcoholic units within 2 hours twice during the past 30 days as a result of binge drinking. Referring to new alcoholic games, 41% of the sample stated that they knew what neknomination is and also that at least one of their friends had accepted this challenge, describing symptoms such as vomiting, headache, altered behavior, increased talkativeness, and sociability. The median value of the weighted average cost of the diagnosis-related group relating to interventions provided by hospitals was the same for both genders, €46,091 (US $56,497; minimum €17,349 and maximum €46,091).ConclusionsDrinking games encourage young people to consume large quantities of alcohol within a short period of time putting them at risk of alcohol poisoning, which can potentially lead to accidental injuries, unsafe sex, suicide, sexual assault, and traffic accidents. The spread of these games through the internet and social networks is becoming a serious health problem facing physicians and medical professionals every day, especially in the ED; for this reason, it is necessary to be aware of the risks represented by such behaviors in order to recognize and identify preliminary symptoms and develop useful prevention programs. The strategic role of emergency services is to monitor and define the problem right from the start in order to control the epidemic, support planning, coordinate the delivery of assistance in the emergency phase, and provide medical education. Hospital-based interdisciplinary health care researchers collected specific data on hazardous drinking practices linked to evaluation of increased alcohol-related consequences and cases admitted to the ED.

A technical assessment of the porcine ejaculated spermatozoa for a sperm-specific RNA-seq analysis

ABSTRACTThe study of the boar sperm transcriptome by RNA-seq can provide relevant information on sperm quality and fertility and might contribute to animal breeding strategies. However, the analysis of the spermatozoa RNA is challenging as these cells harbor very low amounts of highly fragmented RNA, and the ejaculates also contain other cell types with larger amounts of non-fragmented RNA. Here, we describe a strategy for a successful boar sperm purification, RNA extraction and RNA-seq library preparation. Using these approaches our objectives were: (i) to evaluate the sperm recovery rate (SRR) after boar spermatozoa purification by density centrifugation using the non-porcine-specific commercial reagent BoviPureTM; (ii) to assess the correlation between SRR and sperm quality characteristics; (iii) to evaluate the relationship between sperm cell RNA load and sperm quality traits and (iv) to compare different library preparation kits for both total RNA-seq (SMARTer Universal Low Input RNA and TruSeq RNA Library Prep kit) and small RNA-seq (NEBNext Small RNA and TailorMix miRNA Sample Prep v2) for high-throughput sequencing. Our results show that pig SRR (~22%) is lower than in other mammalian species and that it is not significantly dependent of the sperm quality parameters analyzed in our study. Moreover, no relationship between the RNA yield per sperm cell and sperm phenotypes was found. We compared a RNA-seq library preparation kit optimized for low amounts of fragmented RNA with a standard kit designed for high amount and quality of input RNA and found that for sperm, a protocol designed to work on low-quality RNA is essential. We also compared two small RNA-seq kits and did not find substantial differences in their performance. We propose the methodological workflow described for the RNA-seq screening of the boar spermatozoa transcriptome.Abbreviations: FPKM: fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads; KRT1: keratin 1; miRNA: micro-RNA; miscRNA: miscellaneous RNA; Mt rRNA: mitochondrial ribosomal RNA; Mt tRNA: mitochondrial transference RNA; OAZ3: ornithine decarboxylase antizyme 3; ORT: osmotic resistance test; piRNA: Piwi-interacting RNA; PRM1: protamine 1; PTPRC: protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type C; rRNA: ribosomal RNA; snoRNA: small nucleolar RNA; snRNA: small nuclear RNA; SRR: sperm recovery rate; tRNA: transfer RNA

PBL in the teaching of computer networks: The role of LMS PBL‐Maestro in the management and authenticity of the learning environment

ABSTRACTThe area of Computer Networks requires an educational model based on real market practices that can provide students with consistent technological training. However, it should be noted that a Network Project is subject to a wide range of restrictions (such as time constraints, budgeting, and the use of other necessary resources) which means there is a need to work with real cases and in the presence of a client. The purpose of this paper is to describe the effects of the application of PBL‐Maestro in the area of Network Design. PBL‐Maestro consists of a LMS (Learning Management System) that has been designed to underpin a methodological workflow for implementing PBL (Problem‐Based Learning) in the teaching of Computing, called xPBL, which provides support for Authentic Assessment. By taking xPBL as a benchmark, the course management can be carried out by following the dynamics of the cycle and stages. The topics was taught in an entirely ̈hands‐on̈ format with the use of real equipment installed inside the classroom, and it included situations and problems arising from real circumstances. Clients took part in the whole process and took on the responsibility of making requests, monitoring, guiding, and evaluating the development of the problem solution, together with the teacher. In addition, the fact that they were immersed in a practical environment and could make use of the devices employed in companies enabled them to solve problems when requested, with more facility and assertiveness. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with the users who used the LMS.

Coding for Language Complexity: The Interplay Among Methodological Commitments, Tools, and Workflow in Writing Research

Coding, the analytic task of assigning codes to nonnumeric data, is foundational to writing research. A rich discussion of methodological pluralism has established the foundational importance of systematicity in the task of coding, but less attention has been paid to the equally important commitment to language complexity. Addressing the interplay among a commitment to language complexity, the selection of tools, and the construction of workflow, this article offers a framework of analytic tasks in coding. Three general purpose coding tools are explored: Excel, MAXQDA, and Dedoose. This exploration suggests that how four aspects of analysis should be supported in order to manage language complexity: code restructuring, segmentation in advance of coding, use of a full coding scheme, and retrieval of full context by code. This analysis is intended to help writing researchers choose tools and design workflow to support coding work consistent with our commitment to language in its full complexity.

MicroRNA Based Liquid Biopsy: The Experience of the Plasma miRNA Signature Classifier (MSC) for Lung Cancer Screening.

The development of a minimally invasive test, such as liquid biopsy, for early lung cancer detection in its preclinical phase is crucial to improve the outcome of this deadly disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are tissue specific, small, non-coding RNAs regulating gene expression, which may act as extracellular messengers of biological signals derived from the cross-talk between the tumor and its surrounding microenvironment. They could thus represent ideal candidates for early detection of lung cancer. In this work, a methodological workflow for the prospective validation of a circulating miRNA test using custom made microfluidic cards and quantitative Real-Time PCR in plasma samples of volunteers enrolled in a lung cancer screening trial is proposed. In addition, since the release of hemolysis-related miRNAs and more general technical issues may affect the analysis, the quality control steps included in the standard operating procedures are also presented. The protocol is reproducible and gives reliable quantitative results; however, when using large clinical series, both pre-analytical and analytical features should be cautiously evaluated.

MicroRNA Based Liquid Biopsy: The Experience of the Plasma miRNA Signature Classifier (MSC) for Lung Cancer Screening

The development of a minimally invasive test, such as liquid biopsy, for early lung cancer detection in its preclinical phase is crucial to improve the outcome of this deadly disease. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are tissue specific, small, non-coding RNAs regulating gene expression, which may act as extracellular messengers of biological signals derived from the cross-talk between the tumor and its surrounding microenvironment. They could thus represent ideal candidates for early detection of lung cancer. In this work, a methodological workflow for the prospective validation of a circulating miRNA test using custom made microfluidic cards and quantitative Real-Time PCR in plasma samples of volunteers enrolled in a lung cancer screening trial is proposed. In addition, since the release of hemolysis-related miRNAs and more general technical issues may affect the analysis, the quality control steps included in the standard operating procedures are also presented. The protocol is reproducible and gives reliable quantitative results; however, when using large clinical series, both pre-analytical and analytical features should be cautiously evaluated.

Identification of a Tetanus Toxin Specific Epitope in Single Amino Acid Resolution.

Vaccinations are among the most potent tools to fight infectious diseases. However, cross-reactions are an ongoing problem and there is an urgent need to fully understand the mechanisms of the immune response. For the development of a methodological workflow, the linear epitopes in the immune response to the tetanus toxin is investigated in sera of 19 vaccinated Europeans applying epitope mapping with peptide arrays. The most prominent epitope, appearing in nine different sera (923 IHLVNNESSEVIVHK937 ), is investigated in a substitution analysis to identify the amino acids that are crucial for the binding of the corresponding antibody species - the antibody fingerprint. The antibody fingerprints of different individuals are compared and found to be strongly conserved (929 ExxEVIVxK937 ), which is astonishing considering the randomness of their development. Additionally, the corresponding antibody species is isolated from one serum with batch chromatography using the amino acid sequence of the identified epitope and the tetanus specificity of the isolated antibody is verified by ELISA. Studying antibody fingerprints with peptide arrays should be transferable to any kind of humoral immune response toward protein antigens. Furthermore, antibody fingerprints have shown to be highly disease-specific and, therefore, can be employed as reliable biomarkers enabling the study of cross-reacting antigens.

Wall-to-Wall Tree Type Mapping from Countrywide Airborne Remote Sensing Surveys

Although wall-to-wall, accurate, and up-to-date forest composition maps at the stand level are a fundamental input for many applications, ranging from global environmental issues to local forest management planning, countrywide mapping approaches on the tree type level remain rare. This paper presents and validates an innovative remote sensing based approach for a countrywide mapping of broadleaved and coniferous trees in Switzerland with a spatial resolution of 3 m. The classification approach incorporates a random forest classifier, explanatory variables from multispectral aerial imagery and a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) from Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data, digitized training polygons and independent validation data from the National Forest Inventory (NFI). The methodological workflow was optimized for an area of 41,285 km2 that is characterized by temperate forests within a complex topography. Whereas high model overall accuracies (0.99) and kappa (0.98) were achieved, the comparison of the tree type map with independent NFI data revealed significant deviations that are related to underestimations of broadleaved trees (median of −3.17%). Constraints of the tree type mapping approach are mostly related to the acquisition date and time of the imagery and the topographic (negative) effects on the prediction. A comparison with the most recent High Resolution Layers (HRL) forest 2012 from the European Environmental Agency revealed that the tree type map is superior regarding spatial resolution, level of detail and accuracy. The high-quality map achieved with the approach presented here is of great value for optimizing forest management and planning activities and is also an important information source for applications outside the forestry sector.

ESI-07 ShakeMaps for instrumental and historical events in the Betic Cordillera (SE Spain): An approach based on geological data and applied to seismic hazard

This work presents high-resolution ShakeMaps for three earthquakes occurred in the Betic Cordillera (SE Spain): the 2011 CE Lorca event (VIII ESI-07), the 1863 CE Huércal-Overa event (VIII ESI-07) and the 1829 CE Torrevieja event (X ESI-07). Detailed field characterizations and mapping of their coseismic environmental effects (EEEs) are catalogued and classified following the ESI-07 scale. The resulting macroseismic information reaches up to ten times the existing information based on conventional damage-based scales (e.g. EMS-98), providing a better constrain towards more realistic ground-motion scenarios. The 2011 Lorca earthquake has been used as a calibration event, since there is a relevant record of instrumental measures on source, and ground-motion parameters allowing a direct comparison with the modelled PGA values. From a methodological standpoint, the obtained ShakeMaps follow the basic guidelines and methodology proposed by the USGS ShakeMap Program. The two historical earthquakes analysed in this paper produced a wide variety of secondary EEEs but no surface faulting was reported. These effects need to be properly identified by high-resolution DTMs (5 m/pixel), far from the c. 900 m/pixel terrain models used by USGS program. Additionally, the proposed ESI-07 ShakeMaps incorporate correction factors to solve inconsistencies derived from the large scale terrain models considered in standard USGS program workflows: (1) empirical slope-derived Vs30 models result in overestimations of the PGA values in flat terrains in absence of unconsolidated deposits; (2) the topographic amplification factor included here, explains the occurrence of rock-falls and landslides in steep areas, where ground motion is underestimated by the sole use of slope-derived Vs30 models. Basic geological and geomorphological information need to be implemented in the modelling workflow in both cases. To prevent PGA overestimations in flat terrains a correction factor related to the spatial distribution and thickness of the Quaternary unconsolidated deposits has been incorporated (i.e. isopach maps). To correct PGA underestimations in steep terrains an amplification factor was modelled following standard guidelines of seismic topographic amplification.The comparison via iteration of the spatial distribution of both ESI effects and EMS macroseismic data, with the obtained ground-motion spatial distribution, enables a better definition of the geological parameters for the studied historical earthquakes. A more accurate location and/or size of the suspect seismic sources are obtained for these historical earthquakes, providing scenarios more realistic than those resulting from old intensity maps. Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology are behind the implementation of the proposed ESI-07 ShakeMaps, being especially useful when exploring historic or ancient moderate earthquakes with scarce damage-based macroseismic data, but with sufficient paleoseismic or archaeoseismic records. In summary, the methodological workflow proposed here contemplates the implementation of a computational configuration seismologically relevant and able to test repeated seismic scenarios, with different parametric data, in a controlled GIS environment useful to reproduce historical events.

Application of a combination of digital image processing and 3D visualization of graffiti in heritage conservation

In recent years, heritage documentation processes have largely benefited from the application of both 2D imagery analysis and 3D techniques for recording and visualization of assets. In this paper, a combined 2D-3D methodological workflow, especially helpful for the documentation of graffiti on closed and narrow spaces, is presented. It is proposed, firstly, the use of structure from motion software to obtain the 3D model and texture information. Then, the use of decorrelation stretching algorithms is used to obtain enhanced textures. This study found that the performance of the algorithms usually recommended for enhancement of the different colours is sometimes suboptimal. Finally, the integration of 2D and 3D information into Blender, a powerful 3D open-source tool, allows for a detailed exploration of the areas containing graffiti. Additionally, it allows high quality rendition of the resulting model that helps to better understand and record heritage resources. This methodological approach has been applied to the military defense heritage site of Puig-Carassols trench line in Spain.

Studying the Function of the Phosphorylated Pathway of Serine Biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Photorespiration is an essential pathway in photosynthetic organisms and is particularly important to detoxify and recycle 2-phosphoglycolate (2-PG), a by-product of oxygenic photosynthesis. The enzymes that catalyze the reactions in the photorespiratory core cycle and closely associated pathways have been identified; however, open questions remain concerning the metabolic network in which photorespiration is embedded. The amino acid serine represents one of the major intermediates in the photorespiratory pathway and photorespiration is thought to be the major source of serine in plants. The restriction of photorespiration to autotrophic cells raises questions concerning the source of serine in heterotrophic tissues. Recently, the phosphorylated pathway of serine biosynthesis has been found to be extremely important for plant development and metabolism. In this protocol, we describe a detailed methodological workflow to analyze the generative and vegetative phenotypes of plants deficient in the phosphorylated pathway of serine biosynthesis, which together allow a better understanding of its function in plants.

A Multivariate Methodological Workflow for the Analysis of FTIR Chemical Mapping Applied on Historic Paint Stratigraphies.

In the field of applied researches in heritage science, the use of multivariate approach is still quite limited and often chemometric results obtained are often underinterpreted. Within this scenario, the present paper is aimed at disseminating the use of suitable multivariate methodologies and proposes a procedural workflow applied on a representative group of case studies, of considerable importance for conservation purposes, as a sort of guideline on the processing and on the interpretation of this FTIR data. Initially, principal component analysis (PCA) is performed and the score values are converted into chemical maps. Successively, the brushing approach is applied, demonstrating its usefulness for a deep understanding of the relationships between the multivariate map and PC score space, as well as for the identification of the spectral bands mainly involved in the definition of each area localised within the score maps.

New data sources for social indicators: the case study of contacting politicians by Twitter

ABSTRACTData availability is a persistent constraint in social policy analysis. Web 2.0 technologies could provide valuable new data sources, but first, their potentials and limitations need to be investigated. This paper reports on a method using Twitter data for deriving indications of active citizenship, taken as an example of social indicators. Active citizenship is a dimension of social capital, empowering communities and reducing possibilities of social exclusion. However, classical measurements of active citizenship are generally costly and time-consuming. This paper looks at one of such classic indicators, namely, responses to the survey question ‘contacts to politicians’. It compares official survey results in Spain with findings from an analysis of Twitter data. Each method presents its own strengths and weakness, thus best results may be achieved by the combination of both. Official surveys have the clear advantage of being statistically robust and representative of a total population. Instead, Twitter data offer more timely and less costly information, with higher spatial and temporal resolution. This paper presents our full methodological workflow for analysing and comparing these two data sources. The research results advance the debate on how social media data could be mined for policy analysis.

Quantitative paleotopography and paleogeography around the Gibraltar Arc (South Spain) during the Messinian Salinity Crisis

The Malaga basin contains an important geological record documenting the complex paleogeographic evolution of the Gibraltar Arc before, during and after the closure and desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea triggered by the “Messinian Salinity crisis” (MSC). Proxy paleo-elevation data, estimated from the stratigraphic and geomorphological records, allow the building of quantitative paleogeoid, paleotopographic and paleogeographic models for the three main paleogeographic stages: pre-MSC (Tortonian-early Messinian), syn-MSC (late Messinian) and post-MSC (early Pliocene). The methodological workflow combines classical contouring procedures used in geology and isobase map models from geomorphometric analyses and proxy data overprinted on present Digital Terrain Models. The resulting terrain quantitative models have been arranged, managed and computed in a GIS environment.The computed terrain models enable the exploration of past landscapes usually beyond the reach of classical geomorphological analyses and strongly improve the paleogeographic and paleotopographic knowledge of the study area. The resulting models suggest the occurrence of a set of uplifted littoral erosive and paleokarstic landforms that evolved during pre-MSC times. These uplifted landform assemblages can explain the origin of key elements of the present landscape, such as the Torcal de Antequera and the large amount of mogote-like relict hills present in the zone, in terms of ancient uplifted tropical islands. The most prominent landform is the extensive erosional platform dominating the Betic frontal zone that represents the relic Atlantic wave cut platform elaborated during late-Tortonian to early Messinian times.The amount of uplift derived from paleogeoid models suggests that the area rose by about 340m during the MSC. This points to isostatic uplift triggered by differential erosional unloading (towards the Mediterranean) as the main factor controlling landscape evolution in the area during and after the MSC. Former littoral landscapes in the old emergent axis of the Gibraltar Arc were uplifted to form the main water-divide of the present Betic Cordillera in the zone.

Comparison of national level biomass maps for conterminous US: understanding pattern and causes of differences.

BackgroundAs Earth observation satellite data proliferate, so too do maps derived from them. Even when two co-located maps are produced with low overall error, the spatial distribution of error may not be the same. Increasingly, methods will be needed to understand differences among purportedly similar products. For this study, we have used the four aboveground biomass (AGB) maps for conterminous US generated under NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System. We have developed systematic approach to (1) assess both the absolute accuracy of individual maps and assess the spatial patterns of agreement among maps, and (2) investigate potential causes of the spatial structure of agreement among maps to gain insight into reliability of methodological choices in map making.ResultsThe comparison of the four biomass maps with FIA based total biomass estimates at national scale suggest that all the maps have higher biomass estimate compared to FIA. When the four maps were compared among each other, the result shows that the maps S and K have more similar spatial structure whereas the maps K and W have more similar absolute values. Although the maps K and W were generated using completely different methodological workflow, they agree remarkably. All the maps did well in the dominant forest type with maximum agreement between them. The comparison of difference between maps S and K with regional maps suggests that these maps were able to capture the disturbance and not so much regrowth pattern.ConclusionsThe study provides a comprehensive systematic approach to compare and evaluate different real data products using examples of four AGB maps. Although ostensibly the four maps map the same variable, they have different spatial distribution at different scale. Except the 2003 map, one can use other maps at the coarser spatial resolution. Finally, the disparate information available through different maps indicates a need for a temporal framework for consistent monitoring of carbon stock at national scale.

Ensuring VGI Credibility in Urban-Community Data Generation: A Methodological Research Design

In this paper we outline the methodological development of current research into urban community formations based on combinations of qualitative (volunteered) and quantitative (spatial analytical and geo-statistical) data. We outline a research design that addresses problems of data quality relating to credibility in volunteered geographic information (VGI) intended for Web-enabled participatory planning. Here we have drawn on a dual notion of credibility in VGI data, and propose a methodological workflow to address its criteria. We propose a ‘super-positional’ model of urban community formations, and report on the combination of quantitative and participatory methods employed to underpin its integration. The objective of this methodological phase of study is to enhance confidence in the quality of data for Web-enabled participatory planning. Our participatory method has been supported by rigorous quantification of area characteristics, including participant communities’ demographic and socio-economic contexts. This participatory method provided participants with a ready and accessible format for observing and mark-making, which allowed the investigators to iterate rapidly a system design based on participants’ responses to the workshop tasks. Participatory workshops have involved secondary school-age children in socio-economically contrasting areas of Liverpool (Merseyside, UK), which offers a test-bed for comparing communities’ formations in comparative contexts, while bringing an under-represented section of the population into a planning domain, whose experience may stem from public and non-motorised transport modalities. Data has been gathered through one-day participatory workshops, featuring questionnaire surveys, local site analysis, perception mapping and brief, textual descriptions. This innovative approach will support Web-based participation among stakeholding planners, who may benefit from well-structured, community-volunteered, geo-located definitions of local spaces.