Neogeography combines the complex techniques of cartography and GIS and places them within reach of users and developers. This Short Cut introduces you to the growing number of tools, frameworks, and resources available that make it easy to create maps and share the locations of your interests and history. Learn what existing and emerging standards such as GeoRSS, KML, and Microformats mean; how to add dynamic maps and locations to your web site; how to pinpoint the locations of your online visitors; how to create genealogical maps and Google Earth animations of your family's ancestry
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Several competing centers emerged in Central Mexico around AD 600, including Cacaxtla, Xochicalco, and Teotenango. Monumental artwork at these sites appears to proclaim affiliation with distant regions of Mesoamerica, including the Gulf Coast, Oaxaca, and the Maya Lowlands. During the relatively brief florescence of these cities, they combined imagery and religious symbolism in novel ways that set the stage for patterns of interaction and modes of visual representation of later epochs. However, neither the nature nor the extent of interaction between these polities and other regions has been thoroughly investigated. This study examines traits in the art, iconography, religious symbolism, and ritual practices shared between Cacaxtla, Xochicalco, and Teotenango and other sites and regions with the aim of clarifying how and why these polities actively expressed multi-ethnic, or perhaps supra-ethnic identities, and it explores the complexity, nature, and extent of interregional interaction in Late Classic Mesoamerica.
Antifouling paint particles (APP) are generated during the maintenance of boats and are shed from abandoned structures and grounded ships. Although they afford a highly visible, colourful reflection of contamination in the vicinity of the source, little systematic study has been undertaken regarding the distribution, composition and effects of APP in the wider marine environment. This paper reviews the state of knowledge in respect of APP, with particular emphasis on those generated by recreational boatyards. The likely biogeochemical pathways of the biocidal and non-biocidal metals in current use (mainly Cu and Zn) are addressed in light of recent research and an understanding of the more general behaviour of contaminants in marine systems. Analyses of paint fragment composites from recreational facilities in the UK reveal chemical compositions that are similar to those representing the net signal of the original formulations; significantly, dry weight concentrations of Cu and Zn of up to about 35% and 15%, respectively, are observed and, relative to ambient dusts and sediment, elevated concentrations of other trace metals, like Ba, Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb and Sn, occur. These metals leach more rapidly from APP than a painted surface due to the greater surface area of pigments and additives exposed to the aqueous medium. In suspension, APP are subject to greater and more rapid environmental variation (e.g. salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen) than painted hulls, while settled APP represent an important source of persistent and degradable biocides to poorly circulating environments. Through diffusion and abrasion, high concentrations of contaminants are predicted in interstitial waters that may be accumulated directly by benthic invertebrates. Animals that feed non-selectively and that are exposed to or ingest paint-contaminated sediment are able to accelerate the leaching, deposition and burial of biocides and other substances, and represent an alternative vehicle for contaminant entry into the marine foodchain. Clearly, an extensive understanding of biocide behaviour on painted surfaces is not sufficient for predictive or management purposes regarding APP. Greater caution is required by boaters and boatyards during the removal and disposal of solid wastes, and more awareness or stricter enforcement of relevant codes of practice or legislation is recommended.
AbstractFollowing the decision of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) to start negotiations for a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution, discussions and reflections are ongoing on why and how plastic chemicals and polymers of concern should be integrated into the global plastics treaty. One of the points that has been identified as requiring attention is the reduction of the complexity of the composition of plastic objects. This article, addressed to decision-makers and other stake-holders involved in the negotiations, illustrates in a practical and graphical way what complexity means in the case of the presence of inorganic additives.
In: Ecotoxicology and environmental safety: EES ; official journal of the International Society of Ecotoxicology and Environmental safety, Volume 73, Issue 5, p. 817-824
We describe a method and system design for improved data discovery in an integrated network of open geospatial data that supports collaborative policy development between governments and local constituents. Metadata about civic data (such as thematic categories, user-generated tags, geo-references, or attribute schemata) primarily rely on technical vocabularies that reflect scientific or organizational hierarchies. By contrast, public consumers of data often search for information using colloquial terminology that does not align with official metadata vocabularies. For example, citizens searching for data about bicycle collisions in an area are unlikely to use the search terms with which organizations like Departments of Transportation describe relevant data. Users may also search with broad terms, such as "traffic safety", and will then not discover data tagged with narrower official terms, such as "vehicular crash". This mismatch raises the question of how to bridge the users' ways of talking and searching with the language of technical metadata. In similar situations, it has been beneficial to augment official metadata with semantic annotations that expand the discoverability and relevance recommendations of data, supporting more inclusive access. Adopting this strategy, we develop a method for automated semantic annotation, which aggregates similar thematic and geographic information. A novelty of our approach is the development and application of a crosscutting base vocabulary that supports the description of geospatial themes. The resulting annotation method is integrated into a novel open access collaboration platform (Esri's ArcGIS Hub) that supports public dissemination of civic data and is in use by thousands of government agencies. Our semantic annotation method improves data discovery for users across organizational repositories and has the potential to facilitate the coordination of community and organizational work, improving the transparency and efficacy of government policies.
We describe a method and system design for improved data discovery in an integrated network of open geospatial data that supports collaborative policy development between governments and local constituents. Metadata about civic data (such as thematic categories, user-generated tags, geo-references, or attribute schemata) primarily rely on technical vocabularies that reflect scientific or organizational hierarchies. By contrast, public consumers of data often search for information using colloquial terminology that does not align with official metadata vocabularies. For example, citizens searching for data about bicycle collisions in an area are unlikely to use the search terms with which organizations like Departments of Transportation describe relevant data. Users may also search with broad terms, such as "traffic safety", and will then not discover data tagged with narrower official terms, such as "vehicular crash". This mismatch raises the question of how to bridge the users' ways of talking and searching with the language of technical metadata. In similar situations, it has been beneficial to augment official metadata with semantic annotations that expand the discoverability and relevance recommendations of data, supporting more inclusive access. Adopting this strategy, we develop a method for automated semantic annotation, which aggregates similar thematic and geographic information. A novelty of our approach is the development and application of a crosscutting base vocabulary that supports the description of geospatial themes. The resulting annotation method is integrated into a novel open access collaboration platform (Esri's ArcGIS Hub) that supports public dissemination of civic data and is in use by thousands of government agencies. Our semantic annotation method improves data discovery for users across organizational repositories and has the potential to facilitate the coordination of community and organizational work, improving the transparency and efficacy of government policies.
ABSTRACT
ObjectivesSharing of health data, including linkage of research with administrative and health records, is crucial in order to reduce waste and inefficiency as well as to maximise the scientific potential of data. However, there is a well-recognised need to protect the privacy and confidentiality of participant's and their data. Consequently calls for increasing the openness of health data have been accompanied by new norms and techniques to evaluate and control disclosure risk. We review some of the central concepts deployed in debates about disclosure control—privacy, anonymity, identification—and highlight ethical and social scientific issues around their history, their significance, and the complex and changing contexts in which they are deployed.
ApproachReview of the literature about the history and state-of-the-art of disclosure control. We focus on the framing of key problems and solutions, as well as arguments about how concepts are defined and why they are valuable.
ResultsWe identify central concepts deployed in the literature about disclosure control. Concepts include: the construction of risk in terms of the internal statistical properties of data, and in terms of the external context, or 'data environments' (Elliot et al, 2010), which data inhabit and move through; notions of balance regarding security and release of microdata and its juxtaposition with data protection and/or risks of confidentiality violations; protection versus information loss; and the construction of methods for constraining disclosure.
ConclusionDespite the clear relevance of the concepts and context of disclosure control to ethicists, Science & Technology Studies and other scholars, there has been little engagement with the field of Statistical Disclosure Control. We outline a series of key issues for the social study of disclosure control.