Protection Coverage Research Articles

Niche modelling of the potential distribution of the Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus during summer and winter in Iran, to identify gaps in protected area coverage

SummaryAn analysis of the extent of overlap between habitats of the Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus during summer and winter in Iran, and Iranian protected areas, discovered slight overlap between the two. Our study aimed to survey suitable habitats of the Egyptian Vulture during summer and winter in Iran using MaxEnt, a species distribution modelling method, and compare the results with the locations and span of protected areas. Model fitness was assessed using the area under the ROC-plot and True Skill Statistics. We found that habitat suitability in Iran varies for the Egyptian Vulture during summer and winter. Summer visitors are scattered in the north and west of Iran, concentrated along the Zagros and Alborz mountain ranges. Winter visitors and residents are scattered in coastal areas in the south. Habitat protection for winter visitors was the greatest, with 10% of suitable habitat covered, while less than 10% of suitable habitat for residents and summer visitors fell within protected areas. The Egyptian Vulture is categorised as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List. Different environmental factors influence the suitability of habitat for the species. While some factors such as NDVI and anthropogenic disturbance influence all visitors in a similar way, the effects of others such as elevation and distance from protected areas vary for summer and winter visitors. Since designation of protected areas in Iran is mainly determined by the distribution of mammal species, protection of bird habitats is often overlooked. Suitable habitat for the species should be considered when selecting protected areas in future.

Changes in Human Population Density and Protected Areas in Terrestrial Global Biodiversity Hotspots, 1995–2015

Biodiversity hotspots are rich in endemic species and threatened by anthropogenic influences and, thus, considered priorities for conservation. In this study, conservation achievements in 36 global biodiversity hotspots (25 identified in 1988, 10 added in 2011, and one in 2016) were evaluated in relation to changes in human population density and protected area coverage between 1995 and 2015. Population densities were compared against 1995 global averages, and percentages of protected area coverage were compared against area-based targets outlined in Aichi target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (17% by 2020) and calls for half Earth (50%). The two factors (average population density and percent protected area coverage) for each hotspot were then plotted to evaluate relative levels of threat to biodiversity conservation. Average population densities in biodiversity hotspots increased by 36% over the 20-year period, and were double the global average. The protected area target of 17% is achieved in 19 of the 36 hotspots; the 17 hotspots where this target has not been met are economically disadvantaged areas as defined by Gross Domestic Product. In 2015, there are seven fewer hotspots (22 in 1995; 15 in 2015) in the highest threat category (i.e., population density exceeding global average, and protected area coverage less than 17%). In the lowest threat category (i.e., population density below the global average, and a protected area coverage of 17% or more), there are two additional hotspots in 2015 as compared to 1995, attributable to gains in protected area. Only two hotspots achieve a target of 50% protection. Although conservation progress has been made in most global biodiversity hotspots, additional efforts are needed to slow and/or reduce population density and achieve protected area targets. Such conservation efforts are likely to require more coordinated and collaborative initiatives, attention to biodiversity objectives beyond protected areas, and support from the global community.

Protecting Image Processing Pipelines against Configuration Memory Errors in SRAM-Based FPGAs

Image processing systems are widely used in space applications, so different radiation-induced malfunctions may occur in the system depending on the device that is implementing the algorithm. SRAM-based FPGAs are commonly used to speed up the image processing algorithm, but then the system could be vulnerable to configuration memory errors caused by single event upsets (SEUs). In those systems, the captured image is streamed pixel by pixel from the camera to the FPGA. Certain local operations such as median or rank filters need to process the image locally instead of pixel by pixel, so some particular pixel caching structures such as line-buffer-based pipelines can be used to accelerate the filtering process. However, an SRAM-based FPGA implementation of these pipelines may have malfunctions due to the mentioned configuration memory errors, so an error mitigation technique is required. In this paper, a novel method to protect line-buffer-based pipelines against SRAM-based FPGA configuration memory errors is presented. Experimental results show that, using our protection technique, considerable savings in terms of FPGA resources can be achieved while maintaining the SEU protection coverage provided by other classic pipeline protection schemes.

Identifying priority conservation areas for birds associated to endangered Neotropical dry forests

Neotropical dry forests (NDF) are widely distributed and possess important levels of species richness and endemism; however, they are considered a highly endangered ecosystem. Today, the protected areas network (PAs) located within NDF covers <10% of the total forests' extent; and it's still unknown if PAs adequately represent its biodiversity. Thus, we selected 695 bird species associated to NDF and used ZONATION software to assess the species distribution's representativeness within the PAs network. Additionally, we defined priority conservation areas to strategically expand the current PAs considering the most important human pressures. Current PAs cover only 8.4% of NDF and represent on average ~10% of the total distribution of avifauna inhabiting these forests. Approximately 19% of NDF's birds possess <5% of their distribution represented in PAs, from which ~13% have <1% of their ranges protected. Further, ~77% of the most-priority species (i.e. with restricted range and categorized as threatened) possess <10% of their distribution protected. However, our results pointed out great possibilities to improve the picture. By considering our prioritization, the protection coverage would increase to 17% to match the Aichi targets and would substantially increase the representativeness values, covering on average >36% the ranges of all species and, particularly, 62% for the most-priority species. Priority conservation areas identified are mainly distributed in Peru (23.1%), Brazil (21.3%), Ecuador (18.8%), and Bolivia (11.4%). Our novel results represent an important step to guide future establishment of new and efficient conservation areas across the NDF.

Evolution of collaborative networks of solar energy applied technologies

This paper proposes to investigate solar energy applied patents published between 1997 and 2016. Social network analysis and Source path link count algorithms are used as a method to identify technological routes, trends, promising technologies, cooperation features and market of interest protection. Patents applied in Japan and Brazil were selected for analysis of several issues, showing two different contexts when it comes to innovation in solar energy. Mapping these issues can support governments, companies and universities in their decisions about solar energy applications, offering data of the most relevant technologies, their owners, relationships between them, as well as their marketing protection coverage through reliable and replicable metrics. It enables an analysis of competitive technological intelligence and can be used as a tool for Research and Development manager's decisions of future efforts and investments. Companies can observe in a simplified way, standards that are followed and adopted by scientists and market, bringing a possibility of increasing technological knowledge that previously had only empirical means. In addition, government can understand the dynamic of solar energy development from/to their countries and propose policies that improve the use of solar energy in an urban environment. Also, a set of recommendations based on findings was provided to construct a better environment for cooperation and to improve solar energy researches.

Priority conservation pattern of wetlands in the Yellow River basin based on systematic conservation planning.

Yellow River basin is a significant habitat for biodiversity conservation in China. Here, we established a integrated classification system of wetlands based on climate types and geomorphological units, with which as the coarse-filter surrogates of biodiversity elements to complement the fine-filter surrogates of distribution of focal bird species. Then, we applied the theoretical framework of systematic conservation planning (SCP), with those two biodiversity surrogates as protection objects and watershed as planning units. We calculated social and economic costs (including roads, railroads, towns, rural settlements, dams) and set targets of 30% to input Marxan to figure out the optimal set of planning units, which met the protection target with the minimum of social economy cost and land resources. We identified a conservation priority pattern by calculating the irreplaceability of each unit by Marxan. Then, we compared the priority pattern with the existing reserve system to analyze conservation gap in the Yellow River basin. The results showed that most marsh wetlands were concentrated in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. The coverage of reserves in the source area was large. Some rare wetland types in Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Sichuan were separated from the protection system. The main wetland types in the middle reaches of the Yellow River were riverine wetlands, with low protection coverage rate and large conservation gaps. After protection network system being optimized, the protection effect was improved by29.1%-37.6%. The wetland in the lower reaches of the Yellow River was mainly concentrated in the Yellow River Delta area. The protection system was good and the conservation gaps was small. Overall, riverine wetlands in the middle reaches of the Yellow River basin had the highest area proportion of conservation gaps which needed more attention. Based on the priority conservation pattern, our results provided scientific suggestions for the protection planning and management of wetlands in the Yellow River basin, which would lay a foundation for the water ecological protection of the Yellow River basin from the macro scale.

Cardiac-Sparing Whole Lung IMRT in Patients With Pediatric Tumors and Lung Metastasis: Final Report of a Prospective Multicenter Clinical Trial

A prospective clinical trial was conducted for patients undergoing cardiac sparing (CS) whole lung irradiation (WLI) using intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). The 3 trial aims were (1) to demonstrate the feasibility of CS IMRT with real-time central quality control; (2) to determine the dosimetric advantages of WLI using IMRT compared with standard anteroposterior (AP) techniques; and (3) to determine acute tolerance and short-term efficacy after a protocol-mandated minimum 2-year follow-up for all patients. All patients underwent a 3-dimensional chest computed tomography scan and a contrast-enhanced 4-dimensional (4D) gated chest computed tomography scan using a standard gating device. The clinical target volume was the entire bilateral 3-dimensional lung volume, and the internal target volume was the 4D minimum intensity projection of both lungs. The internal target volume was expanded by 1cm to get the planning target volume. All target volumes, cardiac contours, and treatment plans were centrally reviewed before treatment. The different cardiac volumes receiving percentages of prescribed radiation therapy (RT) doses on AP and IMRT WLI plans were estimated and compared. The target 20 patients were accrued in 2years. Median RT dose was 15Gy. Real-time central quality assurance review and plan preapproval were obtained for all patients. WLI using IMRT was feasible in all patients. Compared with standard AP WLI, CS IMRT resulted in a statistically significant reduction in radiation doses to the whole heart, atria, ventricles, and coronaries. One child developed cardiac dysfunction and pulmonary restrictive disease 5.5years after CS IMRT (15Gy) and doxorubicin (375mg/m2). The 2- and 3-year lung metastasis progression-free survival was 65% and 52%, respectively. We have demonstrated the feasibility of WLI using CS IMRT and confirmed the previously reported advantages of IMRT, including superior cardiac protection and superior dose coverage of 4D lung volumes. Further studies are required to establish the efficacy and safety of this irradiation technique.

Trade, poverty, and social protection in developing countries

How do shifts in trade affect social protections for the poor? Although the fraction of the world's population considered the “extreme” poor has fallen by over one-half over the past quarter century, many of those lifted above the global poverty line remain vulnerable to shocks that could place them back into poverty. These are the groups that require social protection to stabilize their incomes. Among the shocks to which the absolute poor have been exposed are those created by trade liberalization, particularly of the agricultural sector. The resulting risks, uncertainties, and threats to social stability from this type of trade require that the poor be provided with some forms of adjustment assistance. We examine the effects of trade components on several dimensions of social protection in developing countries, including spending, coverage, and adequacy over the past two decades. We find that, contrary to previous studies, disaggregating trade may be a key to determining which international market variables drive expansion of social protection. Disaggregating trade balances in agricultural vs. manufactured goods reveals that net food and agricultural exporters provide better social protection than countries that report agricultural trade deficits. Meanwhile, countries with manufacturing trade surpluses tend to experience reduced social protection coverage. We reason that governments of net agricultural exporters face incentives to invest in social programs that extend eligibility to the rural poor. Manufacturing export-driven economies, on the other hand, are likely participants in global production chains that limit the capacity of the public sector to extend social protection.

Cardiac-Sparing Whole Lung Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy in Children With Wilms Tumor: Final Report on Technique and Abdominal Field Matching to Maximize Normal Tissue Protection

PurposeCardiac-sparing whole lung intensity modulated radiation therapy (WL IMRT) has been shown to improve cardiac protection and lung volume dose coverage compared with standard anteroposterior techniques. This dosimetry study had 2 aims: To determine the dosimetric advantages of a modified WL IMRT (M-WL IMRT) technique, designed to reduce radiation exposure to the thyroid gland and breast tissues, compared with standard WL IMRT (S-WL IMRT) and to determine the dosimetric advantages of M-WL IMRT and dosimetrically matched abdomen and flank radiation therapy (RT) fields designed to reduce normal tissue exposure compared with standard field matching techniques. Methods and materialsComputed tomography scans of the chest and abdomen that were obtained during computed tomography simulation of 10 female children were used. For Aim 1, for S-WL IMRT, the planning target volume (PTV) was obtained with a 1-cm expansion of the 4-dimensional lung volume (internal target volume). For M-WL IMRT, the PTV was reduced around the breast and thyroid gland to facilitate thyroid and breast sparing. For Aim 2, standard matching techniques for 3-dimensional anterior/posterior-posterior/anteriorwhole lung and abdominal RT fields were compared with a new dosimetric matching technique for WL IMRT and abdomen and flank fields. For both aims, the dose coverage of the lungs and radiation exposure to normal tissues (heart, thyroid, breasts) were statistically compared. ResultsCompared with S-WL IMRT, the M-WL IMRT technique provided similar lung PTV dose coverage and a significantly superior reduction in mean breast and thyroid doses, without compromising cardiac protection. The M-WL IMRT technique combined with a dosimetrically matched abdomen and flank fields showed significantly superior normal tissue protection compared with standard matched anterior/posterior-posterior/anteriorlung and abdomen and flank RT fields. ConclusionsThis study has shown that the M-WL IMRT technique can reduce radiation exposure to the thyroid gland and breast tissue without compromising cardiac protection and 4-dimensional lung volume dose coverage. This report also describes a new dosimetric matching technique between WL IMRT and abdomen and flank fields that will improve normal tissue sparing compared with standard techniques.

Intellectual Property Protection and Drug Plan Coverage: Evidence From Ontario.

Canada has strengthened intellectual property (IP) protections for pharmaceutical drugs several times over the last 3 decades. This study investigates whether the IP changes had an effect on the market exclusivity time of brand products on the Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB) formulary. We constructed a database that included the first brand approval date for drugs launched between 1974 and 2012, the first ODB listing date of the brand drug, and the first ODB listing date of the generic form of the drug. We then calculated the time of formulary exclusivity to detect any changes in market exclusivity times associated with changes to Canada's IP regimen. There were 595 drugs launched between 1974 and 2012 that were available for analysis. Exclusivity gradually declined from the late 1970s to 1990. Drugs approved in 2004 received 7.6 years of exclusivity, and drugs approved in 2005 received 5 years of exclusivity. Over the time period we analyzed, market exclusivity time of brand drugs experienced marked changes, but we did not detect any systematic effects of Canada's stronger pharmaceutical IP laws on the market exclusivity.

Rapid warming is associated with population decline among terrestrial birds and mammals globally.

Animal populations have undergone substantial declines in recent decades. These declines have occurred alongside rapid, human-driven environmental change, including climate warming. An association between population declines and environmental change is well established, yet there has been relatively little analysis of the importance of the rates of climate warming and its interaction with conversion to anthropogenic land use in causing population declines. Here we present a global assessment of the impact of rapid climate warming and anthropogenic land use conversion on 987 populations of 481 species of terrestrial birds and mammals since 1950. We collated spatially referenced population trends of at least 5years' duration from the Living Planet database and used mixed effects models to assess the association of these trends with observed rates of climate warming, rates of conversion to anthropogenic land use, body mass, and protected area coverage. We found that declines in population abundance for both birds and mammals are greater in areas where mean temperature has increased more rapidly, and that this effect is more pronounced for birds. However, we do not find a strong effect of conversion to anthropogenic land use, body mass, or protected area coverage. Our results identify a link between rapid warming and population declines, thus supporting the notion that rapid climate warming is a global threat to biodiversity.

Towards reducing misrepresentation of national achievements in marine protected area targets

Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted 20 targets, known as the Aichi Targets, to benchmark progress towards protecting biodiversity. These targets include Target 11 relating to Marine Protected Area coverage and the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA) is the accepted international database for tracking national commitments to this target. However, measuring national progress towards conservation targets relies on sound data. This paper highlights the large-scale misrepresentation, by up to two orders of magnitude, of national marine protected area coverage from two Pacific Island nations in multiple online databases and subsequent reports, including conclusions regarding achievements of Aichi 11 commitments. It recommends that for the target driven approach to have value, users of the WDPA data should carefully consider its caveats before using their raw data and that countries should strive for a greater degree of accountability. Lastly it also concludes that protected area coverage may not be the best approach to environmental sustainability and that the remaining 19 targets should be considered to a greater extent.

Planning and operational energy optimization solutions for smart buildings

The incremented popularity of Internet of Things (IoT), thanks to improvements both in hardware and software of sensors over the last years, enables the possibility to monitor and gather any kind of data. Additionally, the arrangement of heterogeneous sensors, capable of perceiving information about their surroundings, into a rich Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) allows the appearance of complex systems in which resources are managed more efficiently. Smart cities, buildings, parkings, emergency services are appearing, where control over energy consumption and better sustainability are coupled with an improvement of the comfort of occupants. In this paper, we address the problem of energy optimization in smart buildings, considering both the planning and operational aspects. Specifically, the first aim is to propose an optimal deployment of the WSN inside a building. For this, we present a model able to identify the optimal locations for different types of sensors and gateways, by optimizing energy consumption while fulfilling connectivity, resource, protection, and clustering coverage constraints. Once the IoT system is deployed, we address the problem of how the building actually functions, according to the behaviour of the occupants. In particular, we propose a Building Management System (BMS) capable of efficiently and automatically manage the building elements using human behavioural models, thus lowering the overall building energy consumption whilst maintaining acceptable levels of comfort.

Invasive pneumococcal disease in Indian adults: 11 years' experience.

To investigate the epidemiology of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), prevalent serotypes, and pattern of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Indian adults. Prospective laboratory based surveillance of IPD was carried out in >18 years age group between January 2007 and July 2017, from a tertiary care hospital in South India. All Streptococcus pneumoniae culture positives from blood, CSF and sterile body fluids were characterized to identify the serotypes and AMR. A total of 408 IPD cases were characterized in this study. The overall case fatality rate in this study was 17.8% (95% confidence interval (CI): 14.1, 22.4). Pneumonia (39%), meningitis (24.3%), and septicaemia (18.4%) were the most common clinical conditions associated with IPD. Serotypes 1, 3, 5, 19F, 8, 14, 23F, 4, 19A and 6B were the predominant serotypes in this study. Penicillin non-susceptibility was low with 6.4% CONCLUSION: Serotype data from this study helped in accurate estimation of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine-13 and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine-23 protective coverage against serotypes causing IPD in India as 58.7% (95% CI: 53.8, 63.4) and 67.4% (95% CI: 62.7, 71.8) respectively. Penicillin non-susceptibility in meningeal IPD cases is 27.4%. Empirical therapy for meningeal IPD must be cephalosporin in combination with vancomycin since cefotaxime non-susceptibility in meningeal IPD is 9.9.

GLOBAL DISCUSSION ON THE FUTURE OF WORK

The article addresses the issues that are the subject of a global discussion on the future of work. The article reflects on the discussions of the future of work carried out by the G20 countries and the expert community. It reveals that the future of work starts today. Creation of high-quality jobs and expansion of employment opportunities, along with the implementation of labor rights of workers and ensuring their social protection are the main objective of countries policies aimed at shaping the future of work. The technological revolution, the demographic transition and globalization processes determine global trends, which influence labor market relations and institutions. Countries are concerned with the growth of informal employment and individualization of labor, leading to the decline of social protection coverage of workers. The future of work is increasingly influenced by education, qualifications and professional skills of workers that they receive throughout life. Ensuring labor rights of workers involved in the new forms of employment, as well as their social protection, remains a priority. Shaping of the future of work requires social dialogue and active participation of governments, associations of employers and trade unions or other organizations representing the interests of workers.

Biological Applications of Bacterial Nano-Surface Layers : A Brief Overview

Surface layer as the outer protective coverage of bacteria and archaea are two-dimensional crystalline and symmetrical arrays of proteins that recently attract a lot of attention for biologist scientists. The surface layers of bacteria are usually 5 to 10 nm in diameter and represent highly porous protein lattices with uniform size and morphology with the pore sizes of 2 to 8 nm. The crucial and most prominent property of this protein-based layer is the regular morphology and suitable chemical composition for different biological applications. Although the formation mechanism of surface layers is different from one type of cell to another once, the surface layer protein molecular compositions almost are same for all types. Recently, the biological application of surface layers opens a prominent research fields in surface biological science such as nano-biotechnology adhesion, vaccination, pharmaceutical, biosensors, bioremediation and mineralization application. In this mini review, we discussed about the main application of this nano-layer in biological systems.

The impact of social protection and poverty elimination on global tuberculosis incidence: a statistical modelling analysis of Sustainable Development Goal 1.

SummaryBackgroundThe End TB Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are intimately linked by their common targets and approaches. SDG 1 aims to end extreme poverty and expand social protection coverage by 2030. Achievement of SDG 1 is likely to affect the tuberculosis epidemic through a range of pathways. We estimate the reduction in global tuberculosis incidence that could be obtained by reaching SDG 1.MethodsWe developed a conceptual framework linking key indicators of SDG 1 progress to tuberculosis incidence via well described risk factor pathways and populated it with data from the SDG data repository and the WHO tuberculosis database for 192 countries. Correlations and mediation analyses informed the strength of the association between the SDG 1 subtargets and tuberculosis incidence, resulting in a simplified framework for modelling. The simplified framework linked key indicators for SDG 1 directly to tuberculosis incidence. We applied an exponential decay model based on linear associations between SDG 1 indicators and tuberculosis incidence to estimate tuberculosis incidence in 2035.FindingsEnding extreme poverty resulted in a reduction in global incidence of tuberculosis of 33·4% (95% credible interval 15·5–44·5) by 2035 and expanding social protection coverage resulted in a reduction in incidence of 76·1% (45·2–89·9) by 2035; both pathways together resulted in a reduction in incidence of 84·3% (54·7–94·9).InterpretationFull achievement of SDG 1 could have a substantial effect on the global burden of tuberculosis. Cross-sectoral approaches that promote poverty reduction and social protection expansion will be crucial complements to health interventions, accelerating progress towards the End TB targets.FundingWorld Health Organization.

Conservation of the endemic species of the Albertine Rift under future climate change

The Albertine Rift region of Africa is one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, with more threatened and endemic vertebrates than elsewhere on the continent. Many of the endemic species are confined to montane forest or alpine areas. We assessed impacts of loss of habitat to agriculture and predicted impacts from niche modelling of climate change to the endemic species of the Albertine Rift. Modelling species distributions for 162 endemic terrestrial vertebrates and plants, we estimated the average percentage of habitat already lost to agriculture at 38% across all species. However, of the remaining suitable habitat the average percentage protected is currently 46%, greatly increased by the recent establishment of Itombwe, Kabobo and Ngandja Reserves in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo from 30%. Species ranges in 2080 were estimated using climate models and predicted to lead to an average loss of an additional 75% of remaining suitable habitat across all species. An estimated 34 endemic species were predicted to lose >90% of their current remaining suitable habitat. The percentage of the total suitable habitat protected in parks or reserves increases under future climate change to 56% because as ranges contract more of the remaining area occurs within existing protected areas. This indicates that the protected area coverage is reasonably well located for future climate change. Based on these data we estimate that 46% of the endemic species we assessed would qualify for threatened status on the global Red List.

Bigger or better: The relative benefits of protected area network expansion and enforcement for the conservation of an exploited species

AbstractThe global portfolio of protected areas is growing rapidly, despite widely recognized shortfalls in management effectiveness. Pressure to meet area‐coverage and management effectiveness objectives makes it essential to determine how limited conservation funds should be allocated between expanding protected area networks and better enforcing existing reserves. We formally explore this question for the particular case of an exploited species in a partially protected system, using a general model linking protection, enforcement and legal/illegal resource extraction. We show that, on average, funds should be disproportionately invested in enforcement rather than expansion. Further, expansion alone, without additional enforcement, can actually reduce conservation outcomes. To help guide future decisions, we calculate the optimal allocation of resources between these two actions given any current level of enforcement and protected area coverage. In most cases, simultaneously investing in expansion and enforcement is the optimal decision. However, in places with low enforcement and high protection, protected area contraction, or strategically concentrating enforcement effort, produces the greatest benefits.

Linked Data Authorization Platform

The expansion of the smart devices, the growing popularity of the social networks, and the wide spread of the corporate services impose huge amounts of heterogeneous data to be generated and stored in separate silos on a daily basis. Parts of this data are private and highly sensitive as they reflect owner’s behavior, obligations, habits, and preferences. On the other hand, the emerging crowd services challenge the owners to expose these data in return to the convenience they offer. Therefore, it is imperative not only to protect the interaction with sensitive data, but also to selectively open it in an unharmful manner for the owner’s personal integrity. One of the main enablers of the crowd services is the emerging linked data, which is all about opening heterogeneous knowledge from separate data silos. Its growing popularity encourages the data owners to publish their personal data in linked data format. The fusion of sensor, social, and corporate data opens new security challenges, which extend the standard security considerations toward more flexible and context aware authorization platforms. In this paper, we propose a linked data authorization (LDA) platform atop a policy language flexible enough to cover all newly emerged requirements, including context awareness. The proposed policy language extends the widely accepted W3C’s SPARQL query language and leverages its expressiveness to protect every part of the data. The novelty of our LDA platform is its unique capability of design time policy validation through stand-alone testing, conflict detection, and overall protection coverage extraction.