First considerations on post processing kinematic GNSS data during a geophysical oceanographic cruise

<p class="Abstract">Differential GNSS positioning on vessels is of considerable interest in various fields of application as navigation aids, precision positioning for geophysical surveys or sampling purposes especially when high resolution bathymetric surveys are conducted. However ship positioning must be considered a kinematic survey with all the associated problems. The possibility of using high-precision differential GNSS receivers in navigation is of increasing interest, also due to the very recent availability of low-cost differential receivers that may soon replace classic navigation ones based on the less accurate point positioning technique. The availability of greater plano-altimetric accuracy, however, requires an increasingly better understanding of planimetric and altimetric reference systems. In particular, the results allow preliminary considerations on the congruence between terrestrial reference systems (which the GNSS survey can easily refer to) and marine reference systems (connected to National Tidegauge Network). In spite of the fluctuations due to the physiological continuous variation of the ship's attitude, GNSS plot faithfully followed the trend of the tidal variations and highlighted the shifts between GNSS plot and the tide gauges due to the different materialization of the relative reference systems.</p><p class="Abstract"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p>

Redefining of “EPSG” and “PROJ” for current State Coordinate Reference System of the Republic of North Macedonia

The state Coordinate Reference System (CRS) of the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM) has been established a century ago, by the Military Geographic Institute of the Yugoslavia Kingdom. It is in official usage entire period up to day. In international public EPSG registry of geodetic datums, spatial reference systems, Earth ellipsoids, coordinate transformations and related units of measurement, CRS for RNM is recognizable within 3 EPSG codes 6204, 6316 and 8679.First code EPSG 6204 represents current state CRS for the entire country area, based on current law, however unfortunately this CRS is official by the law but it is not used for developing the official spatial data published in geoportals of Agency for Real Estate Cadastre (AREC) and NSDI geoportal of RNM. The second code EPSG 6316 is defined to be used for 6 countries of former Yugoslavia that covers area between 19.5°E up to 22.5°E longitude, which does not correspond with the practical and official usage of CRS for working with spatial data in RNM and CRS law definition in RNM. Third code EPSG 8679 has never been used in RNM, which covers eastern part of RNM and Serbia beginning from 22.5°E.Beside of problems with EPSG codes, default transformation parameters of EPSG 6316 have low accuracy and can not be used for data overlapping with open layers. Therefore, redefined new EPSG codes for state CRS of RNM are proposed in this paper.

New anatomical reference systems for the bones of the foot and ankle complex: definitions and exploitation on clinical conditions

Background A complete definition of anatomical reference systems (ARS) for all bones of the foot and ankle complex is lacking. Using a morphological approach, we propose new ARS for these bones with the aim of being highly repeatable, consistent among individuals, clinically interpretable, and also suited for a sound kinematic description. Methods Three specimens from healthy donors and three patients with flat feet were scanned in weight-bearing CT. The foot bones were segmented and ARS defined according to the proposed approach. To assess repeatability, intra class coefficients (ICC) were computed both intra- and inter-operator. Consistency was evaluated as the mean of the standard deviations of the ARS position and orientation, both within normal and flat feet. Clinical interpretability was evaluated by providing a quantification of the curvature variation in the medial-longitudinal and transverse arches and computing the Djiann-Annonier angle for normal and flat feet from these new ARS axes. To test the capability to also provide a sound description of the foot kinematics, the alignment between mean helical axes (MHA) and ARS axes was quantified. Results ICC was 0.99 both inter- and intra-operator. Rotational consistency was 4.7 ± 3.5 ° and 6.2 ± 4.4° for the normal and flat feet, respectively; translational consistency was 4.4 ± 4.0 mm and 5.4 ± 2.9 mm for the normal and flat feet, respectively. In both these cases, the consistency was better than what was achieved by using principal axes of inertia. Curvature variation in the arches were well described and the measurements of the Djiann-Annoier angles from both normal and flat feet matched corresponding clinical observations. The angle between tibio-talar MHA and ARS mediolateral axis in the talus was 12.3 ± 6.0, while the angle between talo-calcaneal MHA and ARS anteroposterior axis in the calcaneus was 17.2 ± 5.6, suggesting good capability to represent joint kinematics. Conclusions The proposed ARS definitions are robust and provide a solid base for the 3-dimensional description of posture and motion of the foot and ankle complex from medical imaging.

Well-being Changes from Year to Year: A Comparison of Current, Remembered and Predicted Life Satisfaction

I study yearly changes in personal well-being combining data on current, retrospective and prospective life satisfaction from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Predicted and remembered changes in life satisfaction are both positive on average and match well, whereas the average year to year-change inferred from reports of current life satisfaction is negative. Retrospective assessments of past well-being are strongly influenced by current life satisfaction, significantly related to past life satisfaction and linked to past predictions of current satisfaction. Due to different problems related to the ordinal measurement scale, changes in subjective reference systems and recall ability, the analysis overall suggests that direct reports of intertemporal changes provide valuable additional information for the analysis of individual well-being.

The environmental impact of prefabricated renovation systems: a worthy alternative to on-site renovation?

The conventional renovation practices, which are mainly characterized by time-consuming manual on-site techniques, partly contribute to the low renovation rate. Accordingly, a faster and more efficient approach is necessary. The implementation of prefabricated systems could offer a possible solution. These systems are increasingly being studied, but little is known about their environmental impact. Hence, this study investigates the environmental impact by means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of two prefabricated façade renovation systems being a timber frame and a sandwich panel; and compares it to a well-known on-site technique, External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS). First, reference designs are assembled. Subsequently, the impact of different life cycle stages is determined in order to clearly indicate differences between on-site and prefabricated systems. More specifically, the production, transport, replacement and end-of-life stage are assessed. In the end, the environmental impact is examined over time combining all stages. The results show that the prefabricated systems are not yet a worthy ecological opponent to ETICS. As of the production stage, the environmental impact appears to be higher. Optimising the reference systems through an extensive redesign could lead to more competitive or even favourable results in terms of environmental impact.

Approximations, Errors, and Misconceptions in the Use of Map Projections

Global geodetic techniques currently can provide the user with worldwide millimeter accuracy. Preservation of this degree of accuracy in derived products is far from straightforward and may leave vast room for trouble in the different steps involved in the collection, storing, processing, analysis, and delivering of geospatial information. This paper is envisioned to serve as a guide for those utilizing map projections, in any possible form of application-cartography, GIS, remote sensing, photogrammetry, etc., to the common (and not so common) causes of error and misconception. This work also explores and questions the validity of some of approximations that are routinely implemented and quantifies the corresponding impact. These include the impact of neglecting meteorological corrections, reduction to ellipsoid and grid scale factors for distances, meridian convergence and arc-to-chord correction for angles, and mixing up with different frames and reference systems, height systems, or deceptively similar map projections. Correct indications are also given for accurately performing geospatial operations such as intersection of lines, determination of minimum point to line distance, and area determination for cadaster, which are often performed with suboptimal accuracy.

Scriptural Markup in the Bible Translation Community

At XML conferences, most discussion of scriptural markup revolves around formats like OSIS and other TEI formats that are not widely used in the Bible translation community. The Bible translation community cares deeply about its translation data, and has developed a backslash-delimited markup language called USFM that is well-suited for marking up Scripture for Bible translation and publishing. It has also developed an XML-based equivalent called USX that is suitable for electronic publication. Neither of these languages is closely related to TEI or its conventions. Although USFM is well-suited for representing Scripture, it is not well-suited for representing lexicons, USFM handbooks, commentaries, translation handbooks, critical apparatus, and many other kinds of resources that translators use as they work. This has been a bottleneck for making some kinds of resources available to translators. Twenty years ago, a team that included well-known XML professionals designed OSIS to meet the needs of this community, but despite the technical merits of OSIS, the translation community continued to use USFM and USX instead. This paper explores the reasons that caused this community to choose USFM and USX, ways to leverage XML to provide reference materials to working translators, and reference systems needed to relate resources to each other. In the course of this paper, we will explore a wide variety of formats designed by different communities with different tastes for different purposes, including USFM, USX, XML, JSON, YAML, and CSV/TSV. All of these are text-based formats that support Unicode and allow data to be clearly labeled. Of course, life would be simpler if all data were created in the same format, but as long as common reference systems can make relationships among data clear, this variety of formats is not particularly problematic. The structure and relationships in the data are more important than the physical format. This paper discusses these issues in the context of Paratext, software actively used by over 10,000 working Bible translators in more than 2,900 languages. It explains the value of USFM, but also the problems caused by its lack of extensibility and the ways that Paratext is using XML to overcome that problem. This paper also gives some real-world examples of mediating among different formats to create resources that work well together, respecting the right of data creators to use formats that work for them. These same issues also occur outside of Paratext in systems that query or process the same kinds of data in other environments that do not use USFM. The same reference systems used to enable XML inside Paratext can also be used to integrate XML formats outside of Paratext and to create new resources that can be used in a wide variety of systems.