V-FOR-WaTer – a virtual research environment to access and process environmental data

V-FOR-WaTer, as a virtual research environment, wants to simplify data access for environmental sciences, foster data publications and facilitate preparation of data and their analyses with a comprehensive toolbox. A large number of datasets, covering a wide range of spatial and temporal resolution, is still hardly accessible for others than the original data collector. Frequently these datasets are stored on local storage devices. By giving scientists from universities and state offices open access to data, appropriate pre-processing and analysis tools and workflows, we accelerate scientific work and facilitate the reproducibility of analyses.The prototype of the virtual research environment was developed during the last three years. Today it consists of a database with a detailed metadata scheme that is adapted to water and terrestrial environmental data and compliant with international standards (INSPIRE, ISO19115). Data in the web portal originate from university projects and state offices. The connection of V-FOR-WaTer to established repositories, like the GFZ Data Services, is work in progress. This will simplify both, the process of accessing publicly available datasets and publishing the portal users&#8217; data, which is increasingly demanded by journals and funding organisations.The appearance of the web portal is designed to reproduce typical workflows in environmental sciences. A filter menu, based on the metadata, and a graphical selection on the map gives access to the data. A workspace area provides tools for data pre-processing, scaling, common hydrological applications and more specific tools, e.g. geostatistics. The toolbox is easily extendable due to the modular design of the system and will ultimately also include user-developed tools. The selection of the tools is based on current research topics and methodologies in the hydrology community. They are implemented as Web Processing Services (WPS); hence, the tool executions can be joined with one another and saved as workflows, enabling more complex analyses and reproducibility of the research.

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V-FOR-WaTer: A Virtual Research Environment for Environmental Research

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-3356 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Marcus Strobl ◽

Elnaz Azmi ◽

Sibylle K. Hassler ◽

Mirko Mälicke ◽

Jörg Meyer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Data Access ◽

Environmental Data ◽

Environmental Research ◽

Easy Access ◽

Web Portal ◽

Environmental Sciences ◽

Research Environment ◽

Data Services ◽

Virtual Research Environment ◽

The Web

The virtual research environment V-FOR-WaTer aims at simplifying data access for environmental sciences, fostering data publications and facilitating data analyses. By giving scientists from universities, research facilities and state offices easy access to data, appropriate pre-processing and analysis tools and workflows, we want to accelerate scientific work and facilitate the reproducibility of analyses.The prototype of the virtual research environment consists of a database with a detailed metadata scheme that is adapted to water and terrestrial environmental data. Present datasets in the web portal originate from university projects and state offices. We are also finalising the connection of V-FOR-WaTer to GFZ Data Services, an established repository for geoscientific data. This will ease publication of data from the portal and in turn give access to datasets stored in this repository. Key to being compatible with GFZ Data Services and other systems is the compliance of the metadata scheme with international standards (INSPIRE, ISO19115).The web portal is designed to facilitate typical workflows in environmental sciences. Map operations and filter options ensure easy selection of the data, while the workspace area provides tools for data pre-processing, scaling, and common hydrological applications. The toolbox also contains more specific tools, e.g. for geostatistics and soon for evapotranspiration. It is easily extendable and will ultimately also include user-developed tools, reflecting the current research topics and methodologies in the hydrology community. Tools are accessed through Web Processing Services (WPS) and can be joined, saved and shared as workflows, enabling more complex analyses and ensuring reproducibility of the results.

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VirES for Swarm & Virtual Research Environment: Software, guides & infrastructure to boost accessibility of Swarm

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9272 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ashley Smith ◽

Martin Pačes

Keyword(s):

Community Involvement ◽

Geomagnetic Field ◽

Data Retrieval ◽

Product Portfolio ◽

It Services ◽

Research Environment ◽

Wide Range ◽

Geomagnetic Field Models ◽

Virtual Research Environment ◽

Model Residuals

ESA's Swarm mission continues to deliver excellent data providing insight into a wide range of geophysical phenomena. The mission is an important asset whose data are used within a number of critical resources, from geomagnetic field models to space weather services. As the product portfolio grows to better deliver on the mission's scientific goals, we face increasing complexity in accessing, processing, and visualising the data and models. ESA provides &#8220;VirES for Swarm&#8221; [1] (developed by EOX IT Services) to help solve this problem. VirES is a web-based data retrieval and visualisation tool where the majority of Swarm products are available. VirES has a graphical interface but also a machine-to-machine interface (API) for programmable use (a Python client is provided). The VirES API also provides access to geomagnetic ground observatory data, as well as forwards evaluation of geomagnetic field models to give data-model residuals. The "Virtual Research Environment" (VRE) adds utility to VirES with a free cloud-based JupyterLab interface allowing scientists to immediately program their own analysis of Swarm products using the Python ecosystem. We are augmenting this with a suite of Jupyter notebooks and dashboards, each targeting a specific use case, and seek community involvement to grow this resource.[1] https://vires.services

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Development and Evaluation of a Virtual Research Environment to Improve Quality of Care in Overcrowded Emergency Departments: Observational Study

JMIR Serious Games ◽

10.2196/13993 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. e13993

Author(s):

Charles-Henri Houze-Cerfon ◽

Christine Vaissié ◽

Laurent Gout ◽

Bruno Bastiani ◽

Sandrine Charpentier ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Emergency Medicine ◽

Quality Of Care ◽

Observational Study ◽

Emergency Physicians ◽

Research Environment ◽

Wide Range ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Ed Overcrowding ◽

Virtual Research Environment

Background Despite a wide range of literature on emergency department (ED) overcrowding, scientific knowledge on emergency physicians’ cognitive processes coping with overcrowding is limited. Objective This study aimed to develop and evaluate a virtual research environment that will allow us to study the effect of physicians’ strategies and behaviors on quality of care in the context of ED overcrowding. Methods A simulation-based observational study was conducted over two stages: the development of a simulation model and its evaluation. A research environment in emergency medicine combining virtual reality and simulated patients was designed and developed. Afterwards, 12 emergency physicians took part in simulation scenarios and had to manage 13 patients during a 2-hour period. The study outcome was the authenticity of the environment through realism, consistency, and mastering. The realism was the resemblance perceived by the participants between virtual and real ED. The consistency of the scenario and the participants’ mastering of the environment was expected for 90% (12/13) of the participants. Results The virtual ED was considered realistic with no significant difference from the real world with respect to facilities and resources, except for the length of time of procedures that was perceived to be shorter. A total of 100% (13/13) of participants deemed that patient information, decision making, and managing patient flow were similar to real clinical practice. The virtual environment was well-mastered by all participants over the course of the scenarios. Conclusions The new simulation tool, Virtual Research Environment in Emergency Medicine, has been successfully designed and developed. It has been assessed as perfectly authentic by emergency physicians compared with real EDs and thus offers another way to study human factors, quality of care, and patient safety in the context of ED overcrowding.

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An Integrated Web Portal for Water Quality Monitoring through Wireless Sensor Networks

International Journal of Web Portals ◽

10.4018/ijwp.2015010102 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 28-46 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Lule Ahmedi ◽

Besmir Sejdiu ◽

Eliot Bytyçi ◽

Figene Ahmedi

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Wireless Sensor Networks ◽

Sensor Networks ◽

Data Access ◽

Water Quality Monitoring ◽

Quality Monitoring ◽

Wireless Sensor ◽

Stream Data ◽

Web Portal ◽

Wide Range

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are aiding water quality monitoring with support for real-time and remote quality measurements in terrain. Environmental monitoring portals receiving data from sensors have been a practice since a while among researchers. However, the Web portal introduced here is essentially an integrated portal since it supports modeling and management of both, the observational stream data on water quality coming from wireless sensors – dynamic data, as well as of the data describing the WSN itself, its devices and the corresponding site allocation data – static data. Access is given to a wide range of individuals, from water experts to WSN engineers, to general public. Experts' module infers statistics about water parameters given the experts' data and rules. The portal is further distinguished for its level of scalability: it allows adding with ease new components, like add certain new regulatory documents for water quality, and directly compare data measured by sensors with corresponding quality standards. The aim is to enrich the portal with semantics in future.

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VirES for Aeolus - Virtual Research Environment (VRE)

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-8347 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Santillan Pedrosa ◽

Alexander Geiss ◽

Isabell Krisch ◽

Fabian Weiler ◽

Peggy Fischer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Application Programming Interface ◽

Data Access ◽

Easy Access ◽

Research Environment ◽

Web Browser ◽

Explorer Mission ◽

Virtual Research Environment ◽

Application Programming ◽

Open Service ◽

Programming Interface

The VirES for Aeolus service (https://aeolus.services) has been successfully running by EOX since August 2018. The service provides easy access and analysis functions for the entire data archive of ESA's Aeolus Earth Explorer mission through a web browser.This free and open service is being extended with a Virtual Research Environment (VRE). The VRE builds on the available data access capabilities of the service and provides a data access Application Programming Interface (API) as part of a developing environment in the cloud using JupyterHub and JupyterLab for processing and exploitation of the Aeolus data. In collaboration with Aeolus DISC user requirements are being collected, implemented and validated.Jupyter Notebook templates, an extensive set of tutorials, and documentation are being made available to enable a quick start on how to use VRE in projects. The VRE is intended to support and simplify the work of (citizen-) scientists interested in Aeolus data by being able to quickly develop processes or algorithms that can be shared or used to create visualizations for publications. Having a unified constant platform could potentially also be very helpful for calibration and validation activities by allowing easier result comparisons.

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Towards a French National Biodiversity Virtual Research Environment

Biodiversity Information Science and Standards ◽

10.3897/biss.3.39216 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

Author(s):

Yvan Le Bras ◽

Laurent Poncet ◽

Jean-Denis Vigne

Keyword(s):

Data Management ◽

Scientific Data ◽

International Standards ◽

Research Environment ◽

Scientific Data Management ◽

Technological Advances ◽

Information And Communication ◽

Virtual Research Environment ◽

New Type ◽

Rapid Pace

Research processes in biodiversity are evolving at a rapid pace, particularly regarding data-related steps from collection to analysis. This evolution, mainly due to technological advances, offers equipment that is more powerful and generalizes the digitalization of research data and associated products. It is now urgent to accelerate good practices in scientific data management and analysis in order to offer products and services corresponding to the new context, presenting more and more openness, requiring more and more FAIRness (Wilkinson, M.D. et al. 2016). Using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as international standards and software (Ecological Metadata Language and associated solutions for metadata management, Galaxy web platform for data analysis), we propose, through the national research e-infrastructure called "Pôle national de données de biodiversité" (or PNDB, formerly ECOSCOPE), to build a new type of Biodiversity Virtual Research Environment (VRE) for French communities. Although deployment of this kind of environment is challenging, it represents an opportunity to pave the way towards better research processes through enhanced collaboration, data management, analysis practices and resources optimization.

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A Study for VM Placement Schemes in Cloud

International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering ◽

10.23956/ijarcsse.v7i8.52 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (8) ◽

pp. 208

Author(s):

Ramandeep Kaur ◽

Navpreet Kaur

Keyword(s):

Cloud Computing ◽

Reaction Time ◽

Task Scheduling ◽

Specific Time ◽

Due Date ◽

Vm Placement ◽

Time Task ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Web

The cloud computing can be essentially expressed as aconveyance of computing condition where distinctive assets are conveyed as a support of the client or different occupants over the web. The task scheduling basically concentrates on improving the productive use of assets and henceforth decrease in task fruition time. Task scheduling is utilized to allot certain tasks to specific assets at a specific time occurrence. A wide range of systems has been exhibited to take care of the issues of scheduling of various tasks. Task scheduling enhances the productive use of asset and yields less reaction time with the goal that the execution of submitted tasks happens inside a conceivable least time. This paper talks about the investigation of need, length and due date based task scheduling calculations utilized as a part of cloud computing.

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Occupational and Environmental Health

10.1093/oso/9780190662677.001.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Occupational Health ◽

Environmental Health ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Practical Experience ◽

Global Perspective ◽

Clear Understanding ◽

Practical Case ◽

Environmental Sciences ◽

Wide Range

This thoroughly updated seventh edition is a comprehensive, clearly written, and practical textbook that includes information on both occupational health and environmental health, providing the necessary foundation for recognizing and preventing work-related and environmentally induced diseases and injuries. National and international experts share their knowledge and practical experience in addressing a wide range of issues and evolving challenges in their fields. A multidisciplinary approach makes this an ideal textbook for students and practitioners in public health, occupational and environmental medicine, occupational health nursing, epidemiology, toxicology, occupational and environmental hygiene, safety, ergonomics, environmental sciences, and other fields. Comprehensive coverage provides a clear understanding of occupational and environmental health and its relationships to public health, environmental sciences, and government policy. Practical case studies demonstrate how to apply the basic principles of occupational and environmental health to real-world challenges. Numerous tables, graphs, and photographs reinforce key concepts. Annotated Further Reading sections at the end of chapters provide avenues for obtaining further infomation. This new edition of the book is thoroughly updated and also contains new chapters on climate change, children’s environmental health, liver disorders, kidney disorders, and a global perspective on occupational health and safety.

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What If the ‘Anthropocene’ Is Not Formalized as a New Geological Series/Epoch?

Quaternary ◽

10.3390/quat1030024 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 1 (3) ◽

pp. 24 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Valentí Rull

Keyword(s):

Present State ◽

Executive Committee ◽

Working Group ◽

Recent Literature ◽

Special Issue ◽

Environmental Sciences ◽

International Union ◽

Quaternary Stratigraphy ◽

Wide Range ◽

Geological Sciences

In the coming years, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) will submit its proposal on the ‘Anthropocene’ to the Subcommission of Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) and the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) for approval. If approved, the proposal will be sent to the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) for ratification. If the proposal is approved and ratified, then the ‘Anthropocene’ will be formalized. Currently, the ‘Anthropocene’ is a broadly used term and concept in a wide range of scientific and non-scientific situations, and, for many, the official acceptance of this term is only a matter of time. However, the AWG proposal, in its present state, seems to not fully meet the requirements for a new chronostratigraphic unit. This essay asks what could happen if the current ‘Anthropocene’ proposal is not formalized by the ICS/IUGS. The possible stratigraphic alternatives are evaluated on the basis of the more recent literature and the personal opinions of distinguished AWG, SQS, and ICS members. The eventual impact on environmental sciences and on non-scientific sectors, where the ‘Anthropocene’ seems already firmly rooted and de facto accepted as a new geological epoch, are also discussed. This essay is intended as the editorial introduction to a Quaternary special issue on the topic.

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Analogy-Based Crop Yield Forecasts Based on Temporal Similarity of Leaf Area Index

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13163069 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (16) ◽

pp. 3069

Author(s):

Yadong Liu ◽

Junhwan Kim ◽

David H. Fleisher ◽

Kwang Soo Kim

Keyword(s):

Time Series ◽

Leaf Area Index ◽

Leaf Area ◽

Crop Yield ◽

Satellite Data ◽

Growing Season ◽

Environmental Data ◽

Area Index ◽

Current Season ◽

Wide Range

Seasonal forecasts of crop yield are important components for agricultural policy decisions and farmer planning. A wide range of input data are often needed to forecast crop yield in a region where sophisticated approaches such as machine learning and process-based models are used. This requires considerable effort for data preparation in addition to identifying data sources. Here, we propose a simpler approach called the Analogy Based Crop-yield (ABC) forecast scheme to make timely and accurate prediction of regional crop yield using a minimum set of inputs. In the ABC method, a growing season from a prior long-term period, e.g., 10 years, is first identified as analogous to the current season by the use of a similarity index based on the time series leaf area index (LAI) patterns. Crop yield in the given growing season is then forecasted using the weighted yield average reported in the analogous seasons for the area of interest. The ABC approach was used to predict corn and soybean yields in the Midwestern U.S. at the county level for the period of 2017–2019. The MOD15A2H, which is a satellite data product for LAI, was used to compile inputs. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of crop yield forecasts was <10% for corn and soybean in each growing season when the time series of LAI from the day of year 89 to 209 was used as inputs to the ABC approach. The prediction error for the ABC approach was comparable to results from a deep neural network model that relied on soil and weather data as well as satellite data in a previous study. These results indicate that the ABC approach allowed for crop yield forecast with a lead-time of at least two months before harvest. In particular, the ABC scheme would be useful for regions where crop yield forecasts are limited by availability of reliable environmental data.

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