Licensing Restrictions Research Articles

Occupational Licensing and Accountant Quality: Evidence from Linkedin

I use the staggered state-level adoption of the 150-hour Rule (the Rule) as a natural experiment along with the career histories of professional accountants’ from LinkedIn to examine the effects of mandatory occupational licensure on the individual quality of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). Using a difference-in-difference and synthetic control research design, I document that the Rule marginally increases CPA exam pass rates and reduced the candidate supply, leading to an overall decline in the number of successful candidates. My analysis of LinkedIn data shows that individuals subject to the Rule are more likely to be employed at a Big 4 public accounting firm and specialize in taxation. However, Rule individuals have the same likelihood of promotion, the same duration until promotion, and exit public accounting at faster rates than their non-Rule counterparts. These findings suggest that restrictive licensing laws reduced the supply of new CPAs while failing to effectively increase the quality of CPAs as measured by their labor market outcomes.

Comparative Testing between Electrical Impedance and Hybrid Nuclear Devices for Measuring Moisture and Density in Soils

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center validated the effectiveness of the TransTech Combined Asphalt Soil Evaluator (CASE) electrical impedance gauge and the Troxler eGauge hybrid electric-nuclear gauge as suitable replacements for nuclear density gauge (NDG) technology. Comparisons of soil density and moisture content were made between the gauges for six distinct soil types at varying densities and levels of moisture content. The CASE unit was calibrated using the sand cone and hot-plate moisture content prior to its correlation to the NDG; the eGauge was used in its shipped configuration without calibration. Full-scale test sections ranging from crushed limestone to fat clays were constructed for the soil evaluations. Results indicated that wet and dry densities obtained with the eGauge very closely matched those of the NDG, with a coefficient of determination (R2) of approximately 94%, but with an R2 of 85% for the measured moisture contents. The calibrated CASE unit's comparison with the NDG moisture content was excellent, with an R 2 of 98%, but the R 2 values were much lower than those of the eGauge for its dry and wet density, at 83% and 59%, respectively. Further, an average R2 of only 30% was found for the CASE unit's ability to capture changing wet density during construction operations, versus 80% for the eGauge. On the basis of the Engineer Research and Development Center findings, the eGauge is recommended as the better replacement for the NDG for wet or dry density measurements. It also requires little to no calibration and has no transport or licensing restrictions.

Which are the critical parameters assessing the driving performance of drivers with cerebral diseases? A literature review

Abstract The objective of this study is to examine and present the most critical parameters that can assess and predict the driving performance of individuals having some kind of cerebral disease. The cerebral diseases that have been studied are: Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). For that purpose an extended literature review was extracted in order to investigate the critical parameters which are examined in the scientific field of driving performance of drivers with brain pathologies. Methods of assessing driving, including on-road driving experiments, driving simulator experiments, neurological and neuropsychological tests etc., and related results of the literature are presented and assessed. Initially, the role of neurological and neuropsychological tests in assessing driving behaviour of patients with cerebral diseases is examined. Then, the role of on-road assessments and the role of driving simulator experiments, in evaluating the driving performance are thoroughly investigated. Twenty-eight studies examining driving parameters that could predict and assess the driving performance of patients suffering a brain pathology (MCI, AD and PD) are reviewed. All these studies concern recent research and report quantitative results. In this framework, the respective driving performance measures are recorded with the aim to investigate which ones are the most promising and in which way they are analyzed. Overall, the critical driving performance measures in which the group of patients with cerebral diseases had significant differences from the control group, were: driving errors, speed, lateral position, reaction time, accident risk, headway distance, left turns, and time to collision. However, the diversity in the measures used, in combination with the diversity in the design of the experiments (i.e. road/traffic factors examined, number/duration of trials) often complicates the synthesis of the results. In conclusion, the analysis of the driving performance of drivers with cerebral diseases may allow the identification of measures that can improve driving safety, such as restrictive measures, training and licensing, information campaigns, medical and neuropsychological monitoring.

Associations of repeated high alcohol use with unsafe driving behaviors, traffic offenses, and traffic crashes among young drivers: Findings from the New Zealand Drivers Study

ABSTRACTObjective: The objective of this study was to describe self-reported high alcohol use at each of the 3 licensing stages of graduated driver licensing and its relationship to drink-driving behaviors, intentional risky driving, aggressive driving, alcohol traffic offenses, non-alcohol traffic offenses, and traffic crashes.Methods: The New Zealand Drivers Study (NZDS) is a multistage, prospective cohort study of newly licensed drivers interviewed at all 3 stages of the graduated driver licensing system: learner (baseline), restricted (intermediate), and full license. At each stage, alcohol use was self-reported using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C), with high alcohol use defined as a score of ≥4 for males and ≥3 for females. Sociodemographic and personality data were obtained at the baseline interview. Alcohol-related, intentional risky, and aggressive driving behaviors were self-reported following each license stage. Traffic crashes and offenses were identified from police records. Crashes were also self-reported.Results: Twenty-six percent (n = 397) reported no high alcohol use, 22% at one license stage, 30% at 2 stages, and 22% at 3 stages. Poisson regression results (unadjusted and adjusted) showed that the number of stages where high alcohol use was reported was significantly associated with each of the outcomes. For most outcomes, and especially the alcohol-involved outcomes, the relative risk increased with the number of stages of high alcohol use.Conclusions: We found that high alcohol use was common among young newly licensed drivers and those who repeatedly reported high alcohol use were at a significantly higher risk of unsafe driving behaviors. Recently introduced zero blood alcohol concentration (BAC) should help to address this problem, but other strategies are required to target persistent offenders.

A Novel Phase-Change Hydrogel Substrate for T Cell Activation Promotes Increased Expansion of CD8+ Cells Expressing Central Memory and Naive Phenotype Markers

IntroductionFor chimeric antigen receptor T cell-based (CAR-T) and engineered T cell receptor (TCR) immunotherapies, T cell expansion methods and phenotype/s of transplanted T cells may heavily influence clinical outcomes. Much current focus is on the potential of defined CD4+/CD8+ T cell populations vs bulk, and on the potential superiority of CAR-T cells from naïve (TN) or central memory (TCM) versus effector memory (TEM) cells. Many commercial T cell activation and expansion methods utilize rigid magnetic beads bound to antibodies against CD3 and CD28 as substrates. These methods are often associated with high costs and licensing restrictions for clinical and commercial applications. Additionally, de-beading processes can be highly complex and inefficient, adding additional time, costs and risks. It has been shown that substrate rigidity influences T cell expansion and phenotype. We hypothesized that a novel phase-change substrate could modulate expanded T cell phenotype/s and address de-beading challenges.MethodsAn alginate-based phase-change hydrogel was synthesized and coated onto magnetic beads to form hydrogel-coated particles of approximately 10 µm diameter. This hydrogel, in the presence of chelating agents, rapidly dissolves, enabling removal magnetic bead removal. The coated particles were conjugated with streptavidin (SA) and bound to biotinylated antibodies against CD3 (OKT3) and CD28 (28.2) to form CD3/CD28 hydrogel particles (CD3/CD28-HP).Human CD3+ T cells from peripheral blood were seeded (Day 0) at 1x10E6 cells/mL in 24 well plates (n=3) in complete RPMI medium supplemented with IL-2. To each well, 25 µL of CD3/CD28-HP were added per 0.5x10E6 cells in a single stimulation. Media addition or change of culture vessel occurred each 2-3 days. Following expansion, chelating agent was added and magnetic beads removed.Flow cytometry was used to assess cell viability and expression of phenotypic markers including CD3, CD4, CD8, CD45RA and CCR7. ELISA was used to measure secretion of IL-2, IL-4, and IFNγ. Residual magnetic beads were counted via hemocytometer.ResultsCD3/CD28-HP promoted significant T cell expansion of 0.3, 1.4, 2.4, 4.8 and 6.6 population doublings (PD) by Days 2, 5, 6, 9, and 13 respectively (p<0.01-p<0.001 vs Day 0). Similarly, CD3/CD28-HP-induced expansion in a separate lab using a different T cell donor yielded 4.7 PD by Day 9 (p<0.001 vs Day 0).Phenotypic markers were assessed on Days 6 and 13. Expansion using CD3/CD28-HP led to significantly more CD8+ cells and significantly fewer CD4+ cells versus the starting population on both days (p<0.05-p<0.001). When compared to a commercially available magnetic CD3/CD28 bead product, CD3/CD28-HP produced a significantly larger CD8+ population on Days 6 (p<0.05)and 13 (p<0.001), and a smaller population of CD4+ T cells on Day 13 (p<0.01). CD3/CD28-HP-based expansion significantly increased the percentage of CD3/CD45RA expressing T cells compared with the magnetic bead-based product on Day 6 (p<0.05). Also, on Day 6, T cells expanded using CD3/CD28-HP showed increased CD8/CD45RA/CCR7 expression when compared to T cells expanded with the commercial magnetic bead product (p<0.05). Cytokine secretion was assessed on Days 6 and 13. Cells expanded using both expansion methods secreted IL-2, IL-4, and IFNγ, with no significant differences in secretory function observed between expansion methods.Following de-beading of expanded cells, cell recovery was 96% for the CD3/CD28-HP-expanded cells and 93% for cells expanded using commercial magnetic bead-based expansion product. Additionally, in de-beaded cells, fewer residual magnetic particles were present in the CD3/CD28-HP-expanded population than in cells expanded via the commercial magnetic bead-based expansion product.ConclusionsThese data demonstrate the utility of a novel phase-change hydrogel system to efficiently induce T cell proliferation, promote expansion of functional T cells expressing markers associated with CD8+, TN and TCM phenotypes, and to separate expanded cells efficiently from magnetic beads. In future studies, we will determine if T cells expanded using this method show increased stemness and persistence in in vivo models, and further explore the possibilities of this novel system for rapid expansion and recovery of specific T cell subtypes. DisclosuresJesuraj:Quad Technologies: Employment, Other: stock options. Cole:Quad Technologies: Employment, Other: Stock Options. Wells:Quad Technologies: Employment, Other: Stock Options. Qin:Quad Technologies: Employment, Other: Stock options. Kevlahan:Quad Technologies: Employment, Equity Ownership. Maus:Novartis: Patents & Royalties: related to CTL019, Research Funding. Ball:Quad Technologies: Employment, Other: Stock Options.

The effect of liquor licensing restrictions on assault: a quasi-experimental study in Sydney, Australia.

To determine whether restrictions on the availability of alcohol in two inner-city entertainment areas in Sydney, Australia (1) reduced the incidence of assault in those areas, (2) increased the incidence of assault in nearby areas (where the restrictions did not apply), (3) resulted in a net reduction in overall levels of assault (4) and/or whether the reductions in assault were most pronounced during the daily time-periods when liquor trading restrictions were in operation. Structural time-series modelling was used to estimate and compare trends in assault in areas/times affected by the new restrictions on alcohol availability with trends in assault in areas unaffected by the new restrictions. Sydney, Australia. The primary outcome measure was the police-recorded monthly incidence of non-domestic assault in the 78months between January 2009 and June 2015. Following the reforms, we found reductions in assaults of 45% [beta = -0.599, 95% confidence interval (CI)=-1.107, -0.091] and 22% (beta =0.260, 95% CI=-0.397, -0.123), respectively, in the Kings Cross and Sydney CBD Entertainment Precincts. In the Kings Cross Entertainment Precinct, reductions in assault were observed in all three daily time-periods. In the Sydney CBD Entertainment Precinct reductions in assault were observed only in the second and third daily time-periods. Assaults did not increase in entertainment areas adjacent to or within easy reach of the target areas. Restrictions on the availability of alcohol appear to reduce the incidence of assault.

Density and Proximity of Licensed Tobacco Retailers and Adolescent Smoking.

Adolescent smoking prevention is an important issue in health care. This literature review describes the theoretical concept of ecological model for adolescent smoking and tobacco retailers and summarizes previous studies on the association between the density and proximity of tobacco retailers and adolescent smoking. We reviewed nine studies on tobacco retailer density and proximity in relation to adolescent smoking, published in peer-reviewed journals between 2004 and 2014. The tobacco retailer density and proximity were correlated with adolescent lifetime smoking, past 12-month smoking, past 30-day smoking, and susceptibility to smoking. School nurses or other school health professionals may need to include the density and proximity of tobacco retailer factors around schools in school-based tobacco-use prevention programs. Health policy makers may need to consider zoning or licensing restrictions of tobacco retailers around schools for adolescent smoking prevention.

Prevention of firearm-related injuries with restrictive licensing and concealed carry laws: An Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma systematic review.

In the past decade, more than 300,000 people in the United States have died from firearm injuries. Our goal was to assess the effectiveness of two particular prevention strategies, restrictive licensing of firearms and concealed carry laws, on firearm-related injuries in the US Restrictive Licensing was defined to include denials of ownership for various offenses, such as performing background checks for domestic violence and felony convictions. Concealed carry laws allow licensed individuals to carry concealed weapons. A comprehensive review of the literature was performed. We used Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation methodology to assess the breadth and quality of the data specific to our Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcomes (PICO) questions. A total of 4673 studies were initially identified, then seven more added after two subsequent, additional literature reviews. Of these, 3,623 remained after removing duplicates; 225 case reports, case series, and reviews were excluded, and 3,379 studies were removed because they did not focus on prevention or did not address our comparators of interest. This left a total of 14 studies which merited inclusion for PICO 1 and 13 studies which merited inclusion for PICO 2. PICO 1: We recommend the use of restrictive licensing to reduce firearm-related injuries.PICO 2: We recommend against the use of concealed carry laws to reduce firearm-related injuries.This committee found an association between more restrictive licensing and lower firearm injury rates. All 14 studies were population-based, longitudinal, used modeling to control for covariates, and 11 of the 14 were multi-state. Twelve of the studies reported reductions in firearm injuries, from 7% to 40%. We found no consistent effect of concealed carry laws. Of note, the varied quality of the available data demonstrates a significant information gap, and this committee recommends that we as a society foster a nurturing and encouraging environment that can strengthen future evidence based guidelines. Systematic review, level III.

The Effects of the Graduated Driver Licensing Restrictions on Teenage Obesity

Little evidence exists on the association between driving and obesity among teenagers. In this paper, I estimate the effects of Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) restrictions on obesity prevalence among adolescents aged 14 to 17 in the U.S. My findings suggest that a mandatory holding period, nighttime restriction, or passenger restriction significantly raises adolescents’ probability of being obese by 1.57, 1.04, and 0.94 percentage points respectively, corresponding to increases in obesity rate of 12.6%, 8.3%, and 7.5%. These effects are generally stronger among male or white teenagers. Overall, I estimate that nearly 24% of the rise in obesity among teenagers aged 14 to 17 in the U.S from 1999 to 2015 can be explained by less driving due to the GDL restrictions. In addition, I find that the restrictions reduce teenagers’ exercise frequency while increasing their time spent watching TV, which may help to explain the adverse effects on obesity.

Gains of Restricted Secondary Licensing in Millimeter Wave Cellular Systems

Sharing the spectrum among multiple operators seems promising in millimeter wave (mmWave) systems. One explanation is the highly directional transmission in mmWave, which reduces the interference caused by one network on the other networks sharing the same resources. In this paper, we model a mmWave cellular system, where an operator that primarily owns an exclusive-use license of a certain band can sell a restricted secondary license of the same band to another operator. This secondary network has a restriction on the maximum interference it can cause to the original network. Using stochastic geometry, we derive expressions for the coverage and the rate of both networks, and establish the feasibility of secondary licensing in licensed mmWave bands. To explain economic tradeoffs, we consider a revenue-pricing model for both operators in the presence of a central licensing authority. Our results show that the original operator and central network authority can benefit from secondary licensing when the maximum interference threshold is properly adjusted. This means that the original operator and central licensing authority have an incentive to permit a secondary network to restrictively share the spectrum. Our results also illustrate that the spectrum sharing gains increase with narrow beams and when the network densifies.

Patents and Competition Law in India: CCI's Reductionist Approach in Evaluating Competitive Harm

The objective of this paper is to examine the CCI’s reasoning and approach in patent – related cases, in light of (i) the legislative framework governing competition and patent law in India, (ii) the economic theories that govern the intersection between antitrust and patent law, and (iii) the manner in which competition agencies in comparative jurisdictions have dealt with similar agreements and conduct by a patent holder.Part 1 of this paper deals with an analysis of the distinction between sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act 2002, in light of the CCI’s tendency to conflate issues pertaining to abuse of dominance and evaluation of anti-competitive agreement involving patents. Part 2 deals with constraints on pricing imposed in several CCI rulings. Part 3 deals with nonprice licensing restrictions as constituting abuse of dominance. Part 4 deals with cases involving a refusal to deal where products are protected by IP rights or proprietary technologies. Part 5 deals with the practice of price discrimination in unified systems markets dominated by intellectual property.

Compliance With and Enforcement of Graduated Driver Licensing Restrictions.

Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) is the most effective strategy to reduce the burden of young driver crashes, but the extent to which young intermediate (newly licensed) drivers comply with, and police enforce, important GDL passenger and night-time restrictions is largely unknown. Population-level rates of intermediate drivers' compliance were estimated as well as police enforcement among crash-involved drivers who were noncompliant. New Jersey's statewide driver licensing and crash databases were individually linked. The quasi-induced exposure method's fundamental assumption-that nonresponsible young intermediate drivers in clean (i.e., only one responsible driver) multivehicle crashes are reasonably representative of young intermediate drivers on the road-was borrowed. Incidence was then estimated among the 9,250 nonresponsible intermediate drivers who were involved in clean multivehicle crashes from July 2010 through June 2012. The proportion of crash-involved noncompliant intermediate drivers who were issued a GDL citation, by crash responsibility, was calculated. Data were collected in 2013 and analyzed in 2015. Overall, 8.3% (95% CI=7.8%, 8.9%) of intermediate drivers' trips were noncompliant with New Jersey's passenger restriction and 3.1% (95% CI=2.8%, 3.5%) with its night-time restriction; compliance was significantly lower among those residing in low-income and urban areas, among male drivers, on weekends, and in summer months. The proportion of crash-involved noncompliant intermediate drivers who were issued a GDL citation was low (nonresponsible drivers, 10.3%; responsible drivers, 19.0%). The vast majority of intermediate driver trips are in compliance with GDL restrictions. Outreach activities should consider focusing on higher-risk situations and groups with higher noncompliance rates.

Development of a browser application to foster research on linking climate and health datasets: Challenges and opportunities

BackgroundImproved data linkages between diverse environment and health datasets have the potential to provide new insights into the health impacts of environmental exposures, including complex climate change processes. Initiatives that link and explore big data in the environment and health arenas are now being established. ObjectivesTo encourage advances in this nascent field, this article documents the development of a web browser application to facilitate such future research, the challenges encountered to date, and how they were addressed. MethodsA ‘storyboard approach’ was used to aid the initial design and development of the application. The application followed a 3-tier architecture: a spatial database server for storing and querying data, server-side code for processing and running models, and client-side browser code for user interaction and for displaying data and results. The browser was validated by reproducing previously published results from a regression analysis of time-series datasets of daily mortality, air pollution and temperature in London. ResultsData visualisation and analysis options of the application are presented. The main factors that shaped the development of the browser were: accessibility, open-source software, flexibility, efficiency, user-friendliness, licensing restrictions and data confidentiality, visualisation limitations, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability. ConclusionsCreating dedicated data and analysis resources, such as the one described here, will become an increasingly vital step in improving understanding of the complex interconnections between the environment and human health and wellbeing, whilst still ensuring appropriate confidentiality safeguards. The issues raised in this paper can inform the future development of similar tools by other researchers working in this field.

Estimating young novice drivers' compliance with graduated driver licensing restrictions: A novel approach

ABSTRACTObjectives: Current methods of estimating compliance with graduated driver licensing (GDL) restrictions among young drivers with intermediate driver's licenses—which include surveys, direct observations, and naturalistic studies—cannot sufficiently answer many critical foundational questions: What is the extent of noncompliance among the population of young intermediate drivers? How does compliance change over the course of licensure? How does compliance differ by driver subgroup and in certain driving environments? This article proposes an alternative and complementary approach to estimating population-level compliance with GDL nighttime and passenger restrictions via application of the quasi-induced exposure (QIE) method.Methods: The article summarizes the main limitations of previous methods employed to estimate compliance. It then introduces the proposed method of borrowing the fundamental assumption of the QIE method—that young intermediate drivers who are nonresponsible in clean (i.e., one and only one responsible driver) multivehicle crashes are reasonably representative of young intermediate drivers on the road—to estimate population-based compliance. I describe formative work that has been done to ensure this method can be validly applied among young intermediate drivers and provide a practical application of this method: an estimate of compliance with New Jersey's passenger restrictions among 8,006 nonresponsible 17- to 20-year-old intermediate drivers involved in clean 2-vehicle crashes from July 2010 through June 2012.Results: Over the study period, an estimated 8.4% (95% confidence interval, 7.8%, 9.0%) of intermediate drivers' trips were not in compliance with New Jersey's GDL passenger restriction. These findings were remarkably similar to previous estimates from more resource-intensive naturalistic studies (Goodwin et al. 2006; Klauer et al. 2011).Conclusion: Studies can practically apply proposed methods to estimate population-level compliance with GDL passenger and night restrictions; examine how compliance varies by relevant driver, vehicle, and environmental factors; and evaluate the implementation of a GDL provision or other intervention aimed at increasing compliance with these restrictions. Important considerations and potential limitations and challenges are discussed.

Impact of reducing investment disincentives on the sustainability of the Moreton Bay prawn trawl fishery

The Moreton Bay prawn trawl fishery is one of Queensland’s oldest commercial fisheries, but is currently economically unsustainable. The fishery is characterized by a mix of large and small vessels, with the small vessels facing different licensing and boat replacement restrictions to the large. Industry have proposed the removal of the current two-for-one boat replacement policy that affects the smaller vessels to encourage investment and replacement by larger vessels, although there is concern by managers about the impact of this on total fishing effort and sustainability of the stocks, despite the existence of a total cap in vessel capacity units. We estimate the impact of removing the boat replacement policy for the smaller vessels on fleet performance and total fishing effort, and find that removing the boat replacement policy is unlikely to result in a substantial increase in fishing effort due to the existence of a vessel unitization scheme.

Simulation of texting impact on young drivers’ behavior and safety on motorways

Texting while driving seems to be a widespread behavior, which has been associated with a non-negligible proportion of road accidents, especially among younger drivers. The impairment of the driver’s behavior and the related risks may be increasing on motorways, taken into consideration the fact that there are high vehicle speeds and the necessary reaction time is decreased. This research aims at investigating the impact of texting on young drivers’ behavior and safety on motorways. For this reason, a driving simulator experiment was carried out, in which 34 young participants drove in different driving scenarios (moderate/high traffic, good/rainy weather). Lognormal regression methods were used to investigate the influence of text messaging as well as various other parameters on the mean speed and the mean headway. Moreover, binary logistic methods were used to investigate the influence of texting and other parameters on the probability of an accident. Results suggest that texting leads to statistically significant decrease of the mean speed and to increased headway in normal and in specific traffic and weather conditions on motorways, as drivers appear to produce compensatory behavior while texting. Furthermore, texting leads to increased accident probability, probably due to longer reaction time of the driver at unexpected incidents. Analyzing the driving performance of those who text while driving may lead to the identification of measures for improving their driving performance such as restrictive measures, training and licensing, and information campaigns.

What Does Research Tell Us about the Impact of Recent Liquor Licence Restrictions on Violence in New South Wales?

Following the success of restrictions on liquor licensing in curbing violence in Newcastle, successive New South Wales governments have relied heavily on liquor licensing controls to reduce alcohol-related violence. Research to date suggests that the collective impact of these controls has been substantial. At this stage, however, little is known about the mechanism or mechanisms through which changing liquor licensing controls have reduced violence. The article examines the little research conducted regarding the impact of liquor licensing reforms (popularly known as the ‘lockout laws’) on the night-time economy in parts of Sydney and identifies three key empirical issues yet to be addressed.

SPICE TOOLS SUPPORTING PLANETARY REMOTE SENSING

Abstract. NASA's "SPICE"* ancillary information system has gradually become the de facto international standard for providing scientists the fundamental observation geometry needed to perform photogrammetry, map making and other kinds of planetary science data analysis. SPICE provides position and orientation ephemerides of both the robotic spacecraft and the target body; target body size and shape data; instrument mounting alignment and field-of-view geometry; reference frame specifications; and underlying time system conversions. SPICE comprises not only data, but also a large suite of software, known as the SPICE Toolkit, used to access those data and subsequently compute derived quantities–items such as instrument viewing latitude/longitude, lighting angles, altitude, etc. In existence since the days of the Magellan mission to Venus, the SPICE system has continuously grown to better meet the needs of scientists and engineers. For example, originally the SPICE Toolkit was offered only in Fortran 77, but is now available in C, IDL, MATLAB, and Java Native Interface. SPICE calculations were originally available only using APIs (subroutines), but can now be executed using a client-server interface to a geometry engine. Originally SPICE "products" were only available in numeric form, but now SPICE data visualization is also available. The SPICE components are free of cost, license and export restrictions. Substantial tutorials and programming lessons help new users learn to employ SPICE calculations in their own programs. The SPICE system is implemented and maintained by the Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF)–a component of NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS). * Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, Camera-matrix, Events

SPICE TOOLS SUPPORTING PLANETARY REMOTE SENSING

NASA's "SPICE"&amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;*&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; ancillary information system has gradually become the de facto international standard for providing scientists the fundamental observation geometry needed to perform photogrammetry, map making and other kinds of planetary science data analysis. SPICE provides position and orientation ephemerides of both the robotic spacecraft and the target body; target body size and shape data; instrument mounting alignment and field-of-view geometry; reference frame specifications; and underlying time system conversions. &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt; SPICE comprises not only data, but also a large suite of software, known as the SPICE Toolkit, used to access those data and subsequently compute derived quantities–items such as instrument viewing latitude/longitude, lighting angles, altitude, etc. &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt; In existence since the days of the Magellan mission to Venus, the SPICE system has continuously grown to better meet the needs of scientists and engineers. For example, originally the SPICE Toolkit was offered only in Fortran 77, but is now available in C, IDL, MATLAB, and Java Native Interface. SPICE calculations were originally available only using APIs (subroutines), but can now be executed using a client-server interface to a geometry engine. Originally SPICE "products" were only available in numeric form, but now SPICE data visualization is also available. &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt; The SPICE components are free of cost, license and export restrictions. Substantial tutorials and programming lessons help new users learn to employ SPICE calculations in their own programs. The SPICE system is implemented and maintained by the Navigation and Ancillary Information Facility (NAIF)–a component of NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS). &amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br&amp;gt; &amp;lt;sup&amp;gt;*&amp;lt;/sup&amp;gt; Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, Camera-matrix, Events

Integration of land use, land cover, transportation, and environmental impact models: Expanding scenario analysis with multiple modules

It is an expensive and time-consuming task to develop a new model. Furthermore, a single model often cannot provide answers required for complex decision making based on multiple criteria. Coupling models are often applied to make use of existing models and analyze complex policy questions. This paper provides an overview of possible model integration approaches, briefly explains the modules that were integrated in a particular application, and focuses on the integration methods applied in this research. While the initial attempt was to integrate all models as tightly as possible, the authors developed a much more agile integration approach that allows adding and replacing individual modules easily. Python wrappers were developed to loosely couple land use, land cover, transportation, and emission models developed in different environments. ArcGIS Model Builder was used to provide a graphical user interface and to present the models’ workflow. The suggested approach is especially efficient when the models are developed in different programming languages, their source codes are not available, or the licensing restrictions make other coupling approaches impractical.