scholarly journals A unified platform to manage, share, and archive morphological and functional data in insect neuroscience

eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Heinze ◽  
Basil el Jundi ◽  
Bente G Berg ◽  
Uwe Homberg ◽  
Randolf Menzel ◽  
...  

Insect neuroscience generates vast amounts of highly diverse data, of which only a small fraction are findable, accessible and reusable. To promote an open data culture, we have therefore developed the InsectBrainDatabase (IBdb), a free online platform for insect neuroanatomical and functional data. The IBdb facilitates biological insight by enabling effective cross-species comparisons, by linking neural structure with function, and by serving as general information hub for insect neuroscience. The IBdb allow users to not only effectively locate and visualize data, but to make them widely available for easy, automated reuse via an application programming interface. A unique private mode of the database expands the IBdb functionality beyond public data deposition, additionally providing the means for managing, visualizing and sharing of unpublished data. This dual function creates an incentive for data contribution early in data management workflows and eliminates the additional effort normally associated with publicly depositing research data.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley Heinze ◽  
Basil el Jundi ◽  
Bente G. Berg ◽  
Uwe Homberg ◽  
Randolf Menzel ◽  
...  

AbstractInsect neuroscience generates vast amounts of highly diverse data, of which only a small fraction are findable, accessible and reusable, despite open data mandates by funding bodies. We have therefore developed the InsectBrainDatabase (IBdb), an open platform for depositing, sharing and managing a wide range of insect neuroanatomical and functional data. It facilities biological insight by enabling effective cross-species comparisons, by intimately linking data on structure and function, and by serving as hub for information on insect neuroethology. The IBdb provides novel visualization and search tools, which are also available in a unique private mode of the database, before data is made public. This allows users to manage and visualize unpublished data, creating a strong incentive for data contribution and eliminating additional effort when publicly depositing the data at a later stage. These design principles could also serve as a blueprint for similar databases in other fields.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Schwartz Benzaken ◽  
Gerson Fernando Mendes Pereira ◽  
Alessandro Ricardo Caruso da Cunha ◽  
Flavia Moreno Alves de Souza ◽  
Valéria Saraceni

Abstract: To assess the adequacy of prenatal care offered in the Brazilian capital cities and the diagnosis of gestational syphilis through public data from health information systems. The modified Kotelchuck index for adequacy of prenatal care was built using Brazilian Information System on Live Births (SINASC) data. Data on gestational syphilis, congenital syphilis, estimated population coverage by the Family Health Strategy (FHS), the Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) and data from National Program for Access and Quality Improvement in Primary Care (PMAQ-AB) were accessed in public sites. The profile of pregnant women associated with inadequate care was assessed by logistic regression. In total, 685,286 births were analyzed. Only 2.3% of women did not attend prenatal appointments. The mean adequacy was 79.7%. No correlation was found between adequacy of prenatal care and FHS coverage (p = 0.172), but a positive correlation was found with the MHDI (p < 0.001). Inadequacy of prenatal care was associated with age below 20 years old, schooling less than 4 years, non-white skin color and not having a partner. Among the congenital syphilis cases, 17.2% of mothers did not attend prenatal care. Gestational syphilis more often affected vulnerable women, including a higher proportion of adolescents, women with low schooling, and women of non-white color. The PMAQ-AB showed a median availability of 27.3% for syphilis rapid tests, 67.7% for benzathine penicillin, and 86.7% for benzathine penicillin administration by health teams. The use of public data showed a low adequacy of prenatal care in Brazilian capitals, denoting insufficient quality for the diagnosis and treatment of gestational syphilis, despite the availability of supplies. Continuous monitoring can be carried out using public data, indicating to local strategies to eliminate congenital syphilis.


Publications ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Brian Jackson

Journal publishers play an important role in the open research data ecosystem. Through open data policies that include public data archiving mandates and data availability statements, journal publishers help promote transparency in research and wider access to a growing scholarly record. The library and information science (LIS) discipline has a unique relationship with both open data initiatives and academic publishing and may be well-positioned to adopt rigorous open data policies. This study examines the information provided on public-facing websites of LIS journals in order to describe the extent, and nature, of open data guidance provided to prospective authors. Open access journals in the discipline have disproportionately adopted detailed, strict open data policies. Commercial publishers, which account for the largest share of publishing in the discipline, have largely adopted weaker policies. Rigorous policies, adopted by a minority of journals, describe the rationale, application, and expectations for open research data, while most journals that provide guidance on the matter use hesitant and vague language. Recommendations are provided for strengthening journal open data policies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Sofie Hellberg ◽  
Karin Hedström

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to describe a local government effort to realise an open government agenda. This is done using a storytelling approach. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data are based on a case study. The authors participated in, as well as followed, the process of realising an open government agenda on a local level, where citizens were invited to use open public data as the basis for developing apps and external Web solutions. Based on an interpretative tradition, they chose storytelling as a way to scrutinise the competition process. In this paper, they present a story about the competition process using the story elements put forward by Kendall and Kendall (2012). Findings – The research builds on existing research by proposing the myth that the “public” wants to make use of open data. The authors provide empirical insights into the challenge of gaining benefits from open public data. In particular, they illustrate the difficulties in getting citizens interested in using open public data. Their case shows that people seem to like the idea of open public data, but do not necessarily participate actively in the data reuse process. Research limitations/implications – The results are based on one empirical study. Further research is, therefore, needed. The authors would especially welcome more studies that focus on citizens’ interest and willingness to reuse open public data. Practical implications – This study illustrates the difficulties of promoting the reuse of open public data. Public organisations that want to pursue an open government agenda can use these findings as empirical insights. Originality/value – This paper answers the call for more empirical studies on public open data. Furthermore, it problematises the “myth” of public interest in the reuse of open public data.


Author(s):  
M. A. Brovelli ◽  
C. E. Kilsedar ◽  
G. Zamboni

GeoWeb 2.0, laying the foundations of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) systems, has led to platforms where users can contribute to the geographic knowledge that is open to access. Moreover, as a result of the advancements in 3D visualization, virtual globes able to visualize geographic data even on browsers emerged. However the integration of VGI systems and virtual globes has not been fully realized. The study presented aims to visualize volunteered data in 3D, considering also the ease of use aspects for general public, using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The new Application Programming Interface (API) of NASA, Web World Wind, written in JavaScript and based on Web Graphics Library (WebGL) is cross-platform and cross-browser, so that the virtual globe created using this API can be accessible through any WebGL supported browser on different operating systems and devices, as a result not requiring any installation or configuration on the client-side, making the collected data more usable to users, which is not the case with the World Wind for Java as installation and configuration of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is required. Furthermore, the data collected through various VGI platforms might be in different formats, stored in a traditional relational database or in a NoSQL database. The project developed aims to visualize and query data collected through Open Data Kit (ODK) platform and a cross-platform application, where data is stored in a relational PostgreSQL and NoSQL CouchDB databases respectively.


Author(s):  
D. Nesterova

The concept of public information in the form of open data and its main features are studied. It is determined that due to the possible wide application of open data, the definition of the main grounds for the classification of open data is an insufficiently covered issue. The purpose of this study is to determine the types and criteria for the classification of public information in the form of open data. This is necessary for their widespread use in order to solve socially important tasks and to use their full potential in unusual directions. The author has analyzed international reports on open data and identified the problems of the quality of such data and the possibility of using them to solve socially important tasks. The classification of open data is formed on the following grounds: 1. by data type; 2. by data format; 3. by subject. The article determines the value of open data to society and the possibility of its wide use in the example of other countries. The problems that complicate the implementation of the government data discovery initiative in Ukraine include the underdeveloped culture of open government; insufficient level of training of public authorities to work with open data; insufficient funding for the public data discovery initiative; low level of public awareness and interest in public data and the benefits of using it. Unfortunately, most citizens are still satisfying their curiosity by using open data. The author notes that using data that describes the patterns we live in can help us solve problems in ways we may not have anticipated. As a rule, public sector systems do not respond too quickly on changes. With open data, they could track, predict and respond to real-time changes. This would allow the public sector to streamline its processes and services and it would be possible to clearly identify areas for improving and increasing productivity, to develop specialized solutions based on various demographic indicators and other factors. This would be a huge transformational leap in attracting open data to the public sector, as it opens up a number of areas for innovation. The author substantiates the importance of open data for public sector transformation, economic benefits and their use as an instrument for creating an information society.


Information ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Marrara ◽  
Mauro Pelucchi ◽  
Giuseppe Psaila

Social Media, Web Portals and, in general, information systems offer their own Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), used to provide large data sets concerning every aspect of day-by-day life. APIs usually provide data sets as collections of JSON documents. The heterogeneous structure of JSON documents returned by different APIs constitutes a barrier to effectively query and analyze these data sets. The adoption of NoSQL document stores, such as MongoDB, is useful for gathering these data sets, but does not solve the problem of querying the final heterogeneous repository. The aim of this paper is to provide analysts with a tool, named HammerJDB, that allows for blind querying collections of JSON documents within a NoSQL document database. The idea below is that users may know the application domain but it may be that they are not aware of the real structures of the documents stored in the database—the tool for blind querying tries to bridge the gap, by adopting a query rewriting mechanism. This paper is an evolution of a technique for blind querying Open Data portals and of its implementation within the Hammer framework, presented in some previous work. In this paper, we evolve that approach in order to query a NoSQL document database by evolving the Hammer framework into the HammerJDB framework, which is able to work on MongoDB databases. The effectiveness of the new approach is evaluated on a data set (derived from a real-life one), containing job-vacancy ads collected from European job portals.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1075
Author(s):  
Naomi Morishita-Steffen ◽  
Rémi Alberola ◽  
Baptiste Mougeot ◽  
Étienne Vignali ◽  
Camilla Wikström ◽  
...  

In a context where digital giants are increasingly influencing the actions decided by public policies, smart data platforms are a tool for collecting a great deal of information on the territory and a means of producing effective public policies to meet contemporary challenges, improve the quality of the city, and create new services. Within the framework of the Smarter Together project, the cities of Lyon (France), Munich (Germany), and Vienna (Austria) have integrated this tool into their city’s metabolism and use it at different scales. Nevertheless, the principle remains the same: the collection (or even dissemination) of internal and external data to the administration will enable the communities, companies, not-for-profit organizations, and civic administrations to “measure” the city and identify areas for improvement in the territory. Furthermore, through open data logics, public authorities can encourage external partners to become actors in territorial action by using findings from the data to produce services that will contribute to the development of the territory and increase the quality of the city and its infrastructure. Nevertheless, based on data that is relatively complex to extract and process, public data platforms raise many legal, technical, economic, and social issues. The cities either avoided collecting personal data or when dealing with sensitive data, use anonymized aggregated data. Cocreation activities with municipal, commercial, civil society stakeholders, and citizens adopted the strategies and tools of the intelligent data platforms to develop new urban mobility and government informational services for both citizens and public authorities. The data platforms are evolving for transparent alignment with 2030 climate-neutrality objectives while municipalities strive for greater agility to respond to disruptive events like the COVID-19 pandemic.


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