scholarly journals What You Probably Didn't Know about Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON) 

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Guala
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Species Occurrence ◽  
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽  
Exact Role ◽  
Occurrence Data ◽  
The Us ◽  
Significant Augmentation ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Biodiversity Information

Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON - bison.usgs.gov) is the US Node application for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the most comprehensive source of species occurrence data for the United States of America. It currently contains more than 460 million records and provides significant augmentation and integration of US occurrence data in terrestrial, marine and freshwater systems. Publicly released in 2013, BISON has generated a large community of stakeholders and they have passed on a lot of questions over the years through email ([email protected]), presentations and other means. In this presentation, some of the most common questions will be addressed in detail. For example: why all BISON data isn't in GBIF; how is BISON different from GBIF; what is the relationship between BISON and other US providers to GBIF; and what is the exact role of the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS - www.itis.gov) in BISON.

scholarly journals DiSSCo, iDigBio and the Future of Global Collaboration

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil Nelson ◽  
Deborah L Paul
Keyword(s):  
Working Group ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
The United States ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Data Generation ◽  
Biodiversity Data ◽  
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽  
Data Accessibility ◽  
The Us ◽  
Biodiversity Information

Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) is the United States’ (US) national resource and coordinating center for biodiversity specimen digitization and mobilization. It was established in 2011 through the US National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program, an initiative that grew from a working group of museum-based and other biocollections professionals working in concert with NSF to make collections' specimen data accessible for science, education, and public consumption. The working group, Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance (NIBA), released two reports (Beach et al. 2010, American Institute of Biological Sciences 2013) that provided the foundation for iDigBio and ADBC. iDigBio is restricted in focus to the ingestion of data generated by public, non-federal museum and academic collections. Its focus is on specimen-based (as opposed to observational) occurrence records. iDigBio currently serves about 118 million transcribed specimen-based records and 29 million specimen-based media records from approximately 1600 datasets. These digital objects have been contributed by about 700 collections representing nearly 400 institutions and is the most comprehensive biodiversity data aggregator in the US. Currently, iDigBio, DiSSCo (Distributed System of Scientific Collections), GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), and the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) are collaborating on a global framework to harmonize technologies towards standardizing and synchronizing ingestion strategies, data models and standards, cyberinfrastructure, APIs (application programming interface), specimen record identifiers, etc. in service to a developing consolidated global data product that can provide a common source for the world’s digital biodiversity data. The collaboration strives to harness and combine the unique strengths of its partners in ways that ensure the individual needs of each partner’s constituencies are met, design pathways for accommodating existing and emerging aggregators, simultaneously strengthen and enhance access to the world’s biodiversity data, and underscore the scope and importance of worldwide biodiversity informatics activities. Collaborators will share technology strategies and outputs, align conceptual understandings, and establish and draw from an international knowledge base. These collaborators, along with Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), will join iDigBio and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History as they host Biodiversity 2020 in Washington, DC. Biodiversity 2020 will combine an international celebration of the worldwide progress made in biodiversity data accessibility in the 21st century with a biodiversity data conference that extends the life of Biodiversity Next. It will provide a venue for the GBIF governing board meeting, TDWG annual meeting, and the annual iDigBio Summit as well as three days of plenary and concurrent sessions focused on the present and future of biodiversity data generation, mobilization, and use.

scholarly journals R Python, and Ruby clients for GBIF species occurrence data

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott A Chamberlain ◽  
Carl Boettiger
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Species Occurrence ◽  
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽  
Occurrence Data ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Global Biodiversity ◽  
Number Of Individuals ◽  
Biodiversity Information ◽  
Programmatic Access

Background. The number of individuals of each species in a given location forms the basis for many sub-fields of ecology and evolution. Data on individuals, including which species, and where they're found can be used for a large number of research questions. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (hereafter, GBIF) is the largest of these. Programmatic clients for GBIF would make research dealing with GBIF data much easier and more reproducible. Methods. We have developed clients to access GBIF data for each of the R, Python, and Ruby programming languages: rgbif, pygbif, gbifrb. Results. For all clients we describe their design and utility, and demonstrate some use cases. Discussion. Programmatic access to GBIF will facilitate more open and reproducible science - the three GBIF clients described herein are a significant contribution towards this goal.

Foreign Policy and the Granting of Asylum: The Case of Zimbabwean Asylum Seekers in the United States (2000–2016)

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enock Ndawana
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Relationship

The nexus between foreign policy and the granting of asylum exists, but scholars have not yet reached a consensus regarding the nature of the relationship. This study examines the role of foreign policy in the granting of asylum using the case of Zimbabwean asylum seekers in the United States (US). It found that although other factors matter, foreign policy was central to the outcomes of Zimbabwean asylum seekers in the US. It asserts that explaining the outcomes of Zimbabwean asylum seekers in the US needs to go beyond the role of foreign policy and be nuanced because the case study rejects a monolithic understanding.

scholarly journals EL ROL POLÍTICO DE ESTADOS UNIDOS EN EL DEFAULT DE ARGENTINA

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Miranda
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Difficult Part

In December of 2001, due to the financial crisis, Argentina had to suspend external payments. The country started a frantic process of abandonment of default thereafter. Research about the causes, processes, and mechanisms of the crisis has been focused on economic issues. The present work instead considers international politics. The aim of the paper is to analyze the role of the United Sates in the restructuring of Argentina’s debt. We consider the reasons, conditions, and actions developed by the hegemonic power in the relationship between Argentina and its creditors. We specially emphasize the political role played by the US government, a position that the US administration had no intention to assume neither before the debacle nor after the crisis started. We conclude that, despite the fact that Argentina has overcome the most difficult part of its default, the episode made evident, once more, the strong Argentine dependence towards the United States.

scholarly journals USA and Russia: 210 Years of Diplomatic Relations and International Communication

2017 ◽  
pp. 8-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Р. Райнхардт ◽  
R. Raynhardt
Keyword(s):  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
The Us ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Further Development

The article is dedicated to the 210th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States of America and Russia and casts light upon their genesis and development. It provides an acute insight into the key issues of US-Russian agenda within a time span of more than 200 years. Along with giving a holistic picture of the subject, the author focuses on specific cases crucial for understanding the current geopolitical juncture shaped by the interaction of the two nations. With an emphasis on differences in political culture, he outlines the important role of cross-cultural communication within the framework of the respective cases. The findings derived from the historical analysis give grounds for a certain degree of optimism in terms of further development of the relationship between the US and Russia.

scholarly journals R Python, and Ruby clients for GBIF species occurrence data

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott A Chamberlain ◽  
Carl Boettiger
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Species Occurrence ◽  
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽  
Occurrence Data ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Global Biodiversity ◽  
Number Of Individuals ◽  
Biodiversity Information ◽  
Programmatic Access

Background. The number of individuals of each species in a given location forms the basis for many sub-fields of ecology and evolution. Data on individuals, including which species, and where they're found can be used for a large number of research questions. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (hereafter, GBIF) is the largest of these. Programmatic clients for GBIF would make research dealing with GBIF data much easier and more reproducible. Methods. We have developed clients to access GBIF data for each of the R, Python, and Ruby programming languages: rgbif, pygbif, gbifrb. Results. For all clients we describe their design and utility, and demonstrate some use cases. Discussion. Programmatic access to GBIF will facilitate more open and reproducible science - the three GBIF clients described herein are a significant contribution towards this goal.

scholarly journals SpOccSum: An easy-to-use Python tool to summarize species occurrence data from material examined lists in taxonomic revisions

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Trizna ◽  
Torsten Dikow
Keyword(s):  
Data Science ◽  
Biodiversity Data ◽  
Species Occurrence ◽  
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽  
Seasonal Incidence ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
Occurrence Data ◽  
Darwin Core ◽  
Biodiversity Information ◽  
Northern And Southern Hemispheres

Taxonomic revisions contain crucial biodiversity data in the material examined sections for each species. In entomology, material examined lists minimally include the collecting locality, date of collection, and the number of specimens of each collection event. Insect species might be represented in taxonomic revisions by only a single specimen or hundreds to thousands of specimens. Furthermore, revisions of insect genera might treat small genera with few species or include tens to hundreds of species. Summarizing data from such large and complex material examined lists and revisions is cumbersome, time-consuming, and prone to errors. However, providing data on the seasonal incidence, abundance, and collecting period of species is an important way to mobilize primary biodiversity data to understand a species’s occurrence or rarity. Here, we present SpOccSum (Species Occurrence Summary)—a tool to easily obtain metrics of seasonal incidence from specimen occurrence data in taxonomic revisions. SpOccSum is written in Python (Python Software Foundation 2019) and accessible through the Anaconda Python/R Data Science Platform as a Jupyter Notebook (Kluyver et al. 2016). The tool takes a simple list of specimen data containing species name, locality, date of collection (preferably separated by day, month, and year), and number of specimens in CSV format and generates a series of tables and graphs summarizing: number of specimens per species, number of specimens collected per month, number of unique collection events, as well as earliest, and most recent collecting year of each species. number of specimens per species, number of specimens collected per month, number of unique collection events, as well as earliest, and most recent collecting year of each species. The results can be exported as graphics or as csv-formatted tables and can easily be included in manuscripts for publication. An example of an early version of the summary produced by SpOccSum can be viewed in Tables 1, 2 from Markee and Dikow (2018). To accommodate seasonality in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, users can choose to start the data display with either January or July. When geographic coordinates are available and species have widespread distributions spanning, for example, the equator, the user can itemize particular regions such as North of Tropic of Cancer (23.5˚N), Tropic of Cancer to the Equator, Equator to Tropic of Capricorn, and South of Tropic of Capricorn (23.5˚S). Other features currently in development include the ability to produce distribution maps from the provided data (when geographic coordinates are included) and the option to export specimen occurrence data as a Darwin-Core Archive ready for upload to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

scholarly journals The relationship between PM2.5 and anti-cyclone wave activity during summer over the United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ye Wang ◽  
Natalie Mahowald ◽  
Peter Hess ◽  
Wenxiu Sun ◽  
Gang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Fine Particulate Matter ◽  
The United States ◽  
Wave Activity ◽  
Fine Particulate ◽  
Western Us ◽  
The Us ◽  
Community Earth System Model ◽  
Regression Slopes ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. To better understand the role of atmospheric dynamics in modulating surface concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), we relate the anti-cyclone wave activity (AWA) metric and PM2.5 data from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environment (IMPROVE) data for the period of 1988–2014 over the US. The observational results are compared with hindcast simulations over the past two decades using the National Center for Atmospheric Research-Community Earth System Model (NCAR CESM). We find that PM2.5 is positively correlated (up to R = 0.65) with AWA changes close to the observing sites using regression analysis. The composite AWA for high aerosol days (all daily PM2.5 above the 90th percentile) shows a similarly strong correlation between PM2.5 and AWA. The most prominent correlation occurs in the Midwestern US. Furthermore, the higher quantiles of PM2.5 levels are more sensitive to the changes in AWA. For example, we find the averaged sensitivity of the 90th percentile PM2.5 to changes in AWA is approximately three times as strong as the sensitivity of 10th percentile PM2.5 at one site (Arendtsville, Pennsylvania; 39.92° N, 77.31° W). The higher values of the 90th percentile compared to the 50th percentile in quantile regression slopes are most prominent over the northeastern US. In addition, future changes in US PM2.5 based only on changes in climate are estimated to increase PM2.5 concentrations due to increased AWA in summer over areas where PM2.5 variations are dominated by meteorological changes, especially over the western US. Changes between current and future climates in AWA can explain up to 75 % of PM2.5 variability using a linear regression model. Our analysis indicates that higher PM2.5 concentrations occur when a positive AWA anomaly is prominent, which could be critical for understanding how pollutants respond to changing atmospheric circulation, as well as developing robust pollution projections.

The United States and the Iranian Nuclear Programme

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Hurst
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nixon Administration ◽  
Comprehensive Plan ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nuclear Issue ◽  
The Relationship

The United States, Iran and the Bomb provides the first comprehensive analysis of the US-Iranian nuclear relationship from its origins through to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. Starting with the Nixon administration in the 1970s, it analyses the policies of successive US administrations toward the Iranian nuclear programme. Emphasizing the centrality of domestic politics to decision-making on both sides, it offers both an explanation of the evolution of the relationship and a critique of successive US administrations' efforts to halt the Iranian nuclear programme, with neither coercive measures nor inducements effectively applied. The book further argues that factional politics inside Iran played a crucial role in Iranian nuclear decision-making and that American policy tended to reinforce the position of Iranian hardliners and undermine that of those who were prepared to compromise on the nuclear issue. In the final chapter it demonstrates how President Obama's alterations to American strategy, accompanied by shifts in Iranian domestic politics, finally brought about the signing of the JCPOA in 2015.

From Competition to Cooperation: A History of Canada–US National Park Relations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Young ◽  
Alan MacEachern ◽  
Lary Dilsaver
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
National Park ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Park Service ◽  
Settler Societies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Flow Of Information ◽  
The Relationship

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.

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