scholarly journals Accelerating Digitisation of Biological Collections: the Coimbra Herbarium case study

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquim Santos ◽  
Fátima Sales ◽  
Paulo Rupino
Keyword(s):  
Information Exchange ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
Biological Collections ◽  
System Validation ◽  
Expert User ◽  
Plant Collection ◽  
Taxon Tree ◽  
Collaborative Platform ◽  
The University ◽  
Collaborative Application

Hebaria are biological collections of preserved plants, algae, fungi and lichens used for scientific purposes. Fast communication and information exchange are fundamental to accelerate the investigation on biodiversity. The major world herbaria are concentrating efforts to digitise their collections and making available the information online. Over the last decade, the Herbarium of the University of Coimbra (COI – acronym in Index Herbariorum) has made efforts to make available online the information of its plant collection of c. 800,000 specimens (http://coicatalogue.uc.pt). However, only c. 10% is processed to this date, in part due to the slowness of the methods generally used in herbaria. This work is a contribution to accelerating the digitising process, both by improving digitising procedures and by involving citizens in populating COI database. To accomplish that, a new workflow was developed to automatically create records in the database from batches of digital images with minimum information, plus a collaborative platform was developed to allow the transcription of specimen labels from digital images in a web environment. Creating records from the images benefits from the physical organisation of the herbarium, with specimens grouped in taxon folders. This way, when taking pictures of a set of specimens, it is possible to store them in folders with the name of the taxon. A script will then read the name of the folder and check in the database if each ranking of the taxon exists on the taxon tree (genus, species, infraspecific ranks), and in case it does not, it creates one, and then it creates a record based on each of the specimens inside that folder assigning a determination to it. The collaborative application (http://coicatalogue.uc.pt/collaborative) has innovative features, such as displaying forms sequentially, revealing only one field at a time (Fig. 1). But the most differentiating feature is probably the process of validation for submitted values. Registered users are included under a category, according to their contribution history. Contributors can be upgraded to the next level when they submit a certain number of validated fields. Therefore, there is a progression based on proficiency, allowing users to become familiar with the specimen information system as they use the platform and, simultaneously, it attributes a confidence level to users. This can be used to validate data, assigning a confidence value to a submission, based on user status (points system). Validation of values submitted by users is obtained when the sum of points for a concurrent value meets a threshold, so a single answer from an expert user could be enough to get validation but would require five basic users submitting the same value to be accepted (Table 1). Although collateral, there is a major, and unique, advantage to this project. The collaborative application can be used as a tool to make corrections to the herbarium database, easily and directly online. This quickly improves the database as such effortless procedure increases this kind of contributions.

ACCURACY ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT SURFACE RECONSTRUCTION MODELLING METHODS FOR HERITAGE OBJECTS DIGITIZED CONSIDERING PHOTOGRAMMETRIC DATA / SKIRTINGŲ RELJEFO MODELIAVIMO METODŲ, SUDARYTŲ PAGAL PAVELDO OBJEKTO FOTOGRAMETRINIUS DUOMENIS, TIKSLUMO ANALIZĖ / АНАЛИЗ ТОЧНОСТИ РАЗНЫХ МЕТОДОВ МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЯ ПОВЕРХНОСТИ, СОСТАВЛЕННЫХ В СООТВЕТСТВИИ С ФОТОГРАММЕТРИЧЕСКИМИ ДАННЫМИ ОБЪЕКТА АРХИТЕКТУРНОГО НАСЛЕДИЯ

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-62
Author(s):  
Jūratė Sužiedelytė-Visockienė ◽  
Aušra Kumetaitienė ◽  
Renata Bagdžiūnaitė
Keyword(s):  
Initial Data ◽  
Surface Reconstruction ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
Digital Camera ◽  
Accuracy Analysis ◽  
Triangulated Irregular Network ◽  
Modelling Analysis ◽  
The University ◽  
Modelling Methods ◽  
Made In

The article explains the possibilities of reconstructing heritage objects. Measurements were made using photogrammetric data received from digital images taken by the Canon EOS 1D Mark III digital camera calibrated in the Institute of Photogrammetry at the University of Bonn (Germany). The images were received applying the PhotoMod photogrammetric software produced in Russia. TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) and an orthophoto map were made in the investigated objects. The modelling analysis of TIN data was made using ArcGIS software. The purpose of the article is to reconstruct the surface of heritage objects referring to photogrammetric data, to investigate accuracy dependence of heritage object reflection on the methods of preparing the initial data and to evaluate the influence of modelling methods on to the accuracy of reconstructing heritage objects when modelling photogrammetric data and selecting the most appropriate method of modelling parameters to restore the most accurate surface of the heritage object. Santrauka Straipsnyje aprašomos paveldo – architektūrinio objekto paviršiaus modeliavimo galimybės. Modeliavimas atliktas pagal fotogrametrinius objekto duomenis–skaitmenines nuotraukas, darytas kalibruota fotokamera Canon EOS 1D Mark III. Kamera kalibruota Bonos universiteto Fotogrametrijos institute (Vokietija). Objekto nuotraukos apdorotos fotogrametrine kompiuterine programa PhotoMod (Rusija). Sudaryta objekto ortofotografinė nuotrauka ir, parenkant skirtingus duomenų šaltinius, paviršiaus TIN (triangulated irregular network). Skirtingais metodais, naudojantis ArcGIS programa, atliktas fotogrametrinių TIN duomenų modeliavimas ir gauti objekto paviršiaus vaizdai. Įvertintas rezultatų tikslumas ir kokybė. Резюме Описываются возможности моделирования поверхности объекта архитектурного наследия. Моделирование осуществляется с использованием фотограмметрических данных объекта – цифровых снимков, снятых калибрированной цифровой камерой Canon EOS 1D Mark III. Камера калибрирована в Институте фотограмметрии Боннского университета (Германия). Снимки объекта обработаны по фотограмметрической компьютерной программе PhotoMod (Россия). Cделан ортофотографический снимок объекта и с помощью разных источников данных TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) поверхности. Используя программу ArcGIS, разными методами проведено моделирование фотограмметрических TIN данных и получены изображения поверхности объекта. Осуществлена оценка точности и качества результатов.

scholarly journals PROPOSALS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY FROM THE CURRENT SITUATION OF ETHNOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY TRAINING AND RESEARCH IN VIETNAM

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-18
Author(s):  
Tiep Van Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Reference Materials ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Ho Chi Minh City ◽  
International Training ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Graduate Curricula ◽  
Training And Research ◽  
Teaching Faculty ◽  
The University

The Faculty of Anthropology, former sub-faculty of anthropology, in the university of Social Sciences and Humanities of Ho Chi Minh City was established in 2002. For 10 years, the department has developed a strategy to develop its staff and teaching faculty together with gradually building up undergraduate and graduate curricula; as well as translating reference books, mostly about theories and methodology; compiling textbooks etc. Basing on the reality of constructing and developing the discipline in Vietnam, we come up with some ideas about how to continue constructing and developping anthropology in the context of international integration such as information exchange, national and international training and researching collaboration, publishing textbooks, translating reference materials, and improving curricula at undergraduate and graduate levels.

scholarly journals A strategy to digitise natural history collections with limited resources

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquim Santos ◽  
Paulo Rupino da Cunha ◽  
Fátima Sales
Keyword(s):  
Quality Control ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Digital Images ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Slow Process ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
Stage Process ◽  
The University

The present work is a contribution towards accelerating the digitisation process of natural history collections, usually a slow process. A two-stage process was developed at the herbarium of the University of Coimbra: (i) a new workflow was established to automatically create records in the herbarium master database with minimum information, while capturing digital images; (ii) these records are then used to populate a web-based crowdsourcing platform where citizens are involved in the transcription of specimen labels from the digital images. This approach simplifies and accelerates databasing, reduces specimen manipulation and promotes the involvement of citizens in the scientific goals of the herbarium. The novel features of this process are: (i) the validation method of the crowdsourcing contribution that ensures quality control, enabling the data to integrate the master database directly and (ii) the field-by-field integration in the master database enables immediate corrections to any record in the catalogue.

scholarly journals The Development of the New University of Bristol Botanic Garden

2009 ◽  
pp. 19-41
Author(s):  
Nicholas Wray
Keyword(s):  
Useful Plants ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
The Third ◽  
Detailed Explanation ◽  
International Policies ◽  
Current Location ◽  
Plant Collections ◽  
Plant Collection ◽  
University Of Bristol ◽  
The University

in 2002 the decision was made to move the university of bristol botanic garden (ubbg) from its then current location. this move would be the third in the garden’s history. the four core collections for the new garden were selected in line with modern international policies on botanic garden management, recent research and the university of bristol’s teaching needs. the themes of these collections are evolution, rare and threatened native and local flora, useful plants and Mediterranean-type flora. this paper describes the development of the plant collection policy, the vision and concept for the new garden, together with a detailed explanation of the work to relocate the existing plant collections, and the design and establishment of the new garden.

scholarly journals Editorial: Knowing about communication and media

Seminar.net ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yngve Nordkvelle
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
Conceptions Of Learning ◽  
Intrinsic Nature ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
The University

Yngve Nordkvelle, editorThere is a tradition in media history from Plato idealising the communication situation that is person to person. Although several authors have shown that Socrates used many strategies for his communication to his audience, and quite a few of them were far less sincerely other-centred than his followers like to portray. In fact Socrates was using all the tricks of the communication trade: persuading, threatening, ridiculing and joking in addition to the sanctimonious dialogue. However, in the dialogues, we believe we find the true Socrates, or Plato, expressing the potential of self-liberation and self-expansion in the education of the person, in plain talking person to person. Jesus was a practitioner of communicative skills, addressing small groups, as well as larger groups and gatherings. Monty Python showed how difficult it must have been to convey the message to a really large group of followers without using a PA-system, and how creatively listeners compose new meanings from the bits and pieces they do actually hear. Nevertheless, speaking one to many was a necessity for the mass-communication ambitions of the Christians, who boldly went out to baptize the entire world.While Plato nurtured the deepest suspicion of rhetoric as an art of communication, the Christians embraced the knowledge of Rhetoric, and developed it for their purposes in their activities of organizing the Western Mind. Socrates did use drawings and mental visuals: allegories, stories etc. for his purposeful teaching. The Greeks acknowledged that teaching was actually very closely associated with “pointing at”. “Didaskein” was the word they used for the teaching activity of pointing at or highlighting something worth explaining. In the development of mass communication the usefulness of pointing at something apart from what is conceivable here and now has been a significant part of rhetoric and teaching. Metaphors, allegories and stories - and then symbols, signs, icons, drawings, tables and graphs developed over the years and were used in churches, public buildings, lecture halls and schools to assist the preacher, speaker or teacher. Flexible visualizing tools, such as the blackboard, or the more theatrical “laterna magica”, then the “ballopticon”, slidesprojector, overheadprojector etc. arrived and made the tasks of the messenger more and more complex.With the computer even more tools have arrived. Gradually our everyday teaching with media has been overwhelmingly furnished with gadgets that make visualization common - and sometimes grim and confusing, - sometimes enlightening and expanding. In our journal we try to explain, expand on and forward critique on both the media technologies and the way we use them.In this issue we present four articles with different takes on the matter. Professor Theo Hug opens this issue with a deep analysis of what knowing about educational media is all about. From his base at the University of Innsbruck he provides us with a profound insight in the trends and fads that we are surrounded with, and suggest new angels and ways of seeing the problems we encounter of “the visual” in teaching and learning. Professor Halvor Nordby offers a deep exploration of the communication phenomenon related to the use of Internet for teaching and communication. He asks what the essential nature of this communication is and how it differs from ordinary face-to-face communication in a most fundamental sense. He provides us with a conceptual analysis as a philosophical method to explore the intrinsic nature of the concept interactive communication. His aim of this method is to develop a concept definition that matches shared linguistic beliefs about informative examples from Internet based communication and information exchange that is central in e-learning. PhD Ulf Olson, who works at the University of Stockholm offers us insights into the problems of how lecturers from three different universities interpret and apply  certain methods in their blended learning/web-based courses. He compares their teaching methods  to the lecturers' conceptions of learning. He used questionnaires for the survey and compares responses from lecturers in 10 subjects to each other. Olson’s main aims was to compare chosen teaching forms to conceptions of learning, and to compare subject areas with each other according to the lecturers' conceptions of learning. Not surprisingly, he did find important inconsistencies between the lecturers' conceptions of learning and the teaching methods they used. Finally, associate professor Arvid Staupe from the Norwegian University of Technology and Science, present a paper reporting from an experiment trying out new forms of evaluation at his own institution. The article describe how he went about to solve the particular problems of students’ learning in his classes by offering alternative ways of evaluating the students’ work. The article provides evidence of the success of alternative evaluation methods, as well as documenting how conventional learning styles at the university may slow down the pace of change in this important domain.

scholarly journals Synthesis for health services and policy: case studies in the scoping of reviews

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (15) ◽  
pp. 1-84
Author(s):  
Rob Anderson ◽  
Andrew Booth ◽  
Alison Eastwood ◽  
Mark Rodgers ◽  
Liz Shaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Evidence Synthesis ◽  
Synthesis Methods ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Review Team ◽  
The University

Background For systematic reviews to be rigorous, deliverable and useful, they need a well-defined review question. Scoping for a review also requires the specification of clear inclusion criteria and planned synthesis methods. Guidance is lacking on how to develop these, especially in the context of undertaking rapid and responsive systematic reviews to inform health services and health policy. Objective This report describes and discusses the experiences of review scoping of three commissioned research centres that conducted evidence syntheses to inform health and social care organisation, delivery and policy in the UK, between 2017 and 2020. Data sources Sources included researcher recollection, project meeting minutes, e-mail correspondence with stakeholders and scoping searches, from allocation of a review topic through to review protocol agreement. Methods We produced eight descriptive case studies of selected reviews from the three teams. From case studies, we identified key issues that shape the processes of scoping and question formulation for evidence synthesis. The issues were then discussed and lessons drawn. Findings Across the eight diverse case studies, we identified 14 recurrent issues that were important in shaping the scoping processes and formulating a review’s questions. There were ‘consultative issues’ that related to securing input from review commissioners, policy customers, experts, patients and other stakeholders. These included managing and deciding priorities, reconciling different priorities/perspectives, achieving buy-in and engagement, educating the end-user about synthesis processes and products, and managing stakeholder expectations. There were ‘interface issues’ that related to the interaction between the review team and potential review users. These included identifying the niche/gap and optimising value, assuring and balancing rigour/reliability/relevance, and assuring the transferability/applicability of study evidence to specific policy/service user contexts. There were also ‘technical issues’ that were associated with the methods and conduct of the review. These were choosing the method(s) of synthesis, balancing fixed and fluid review questions/components/definitions, taking stock of what research already exists, mapping versus scoping versus reviewing, scoping/relevance as a continuous process and not just an initial stage, and calibrating general compared with specific and broad compared with deep coverage of topics. Limitations As a retrospective joint reflection by review teams on their experiences of scoping processes, this report is not based on prospectively collected research data. In addition, our evaluations were not externally validated by, for example, policy and service evidence users or patients and the public. Conclusions We have summarised our reflections on scoping from this programme of reviews as 14 common issues and 28 practical ‘lessons learned’. Effective scoping of rapid, responsive reviews extends beyond information exchange and technical procedures for specifying a ‘gap’ in the evidence. These considerations work alongside social processes, in particular the building of relationships and shared understanding between reviewers, research commissioners and potential review users that may be reflective of consultancy, negotiation and co-production models of research and information use. Funding This report has been based on work commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research (HSDR) programme as three university-based evidence synthesis centres to inform the organisation, delivery and commissioning of health and social care; at the University of Exeter (NIHR 16/47/22), the University of Sheffield (NIHR 16/47/17) and the University of York (NIHR 16/47/11). This report was commissioned by the NIHR HSDR programme as a review project (NIHR132708) within the NIHR HSDR programme. This project was funded by the NIHR HSDR programme and will be published in full in Health Services and Delivery Research; Vol. 9, No. 15. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

Modeling a Flat Learning Environment as a Social Network to Understand Effects of Peer-to-Peer Information Exchange on Learning

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahed Siddique ◽  
Gül E. Okudan Kremer ◽  
Firas Akasheh
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Peer Learning ◽  
Dual Roles ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
Open Design ◽  
Collaborative Environment ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
The University

In this paper we present a technology assisted flat learning environment, Teaching to Learn (TeatoL), that capitalizes on the research findings on linkages between higher-order thinking and peer-learning. Within TeatoL students are introduced to a “flatter” instructional environment; all participants have dual roles as students and instructors who are embedded in a collaborative environment where all learn collectively from each other’s experiences, even the instructor. The main objective of this paper is to understand flat learning environment as a social network. The focus is on peer learning mode, where students are instructors to share their experience and then learn from fellow student instructors. In this paper, we present our initial analysis of a flat learning environment, implemented at the University of Oklahoma, as a network. The participants in the learning environment were given an open design problem related to sheet metal forming. We close the paper with observations from our initial implementations on peer-learning as a network.

scholarly journals VERGILIUS

2021 ◽  
pp. 49-56
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Capozzoli
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Film Library ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
Pottery Sherds ◽  
University Of Paris ◽  
Collaborative Platform ◽  
The University ◽  
It Skills ◽  
Plaster Casts

Vincenzo Capozzoli presents VERGILIUS, a collaborative platform for studying and promoting the heritage of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, which consists in Greek antiquities, a model of the ancient city of Rome, a collection of pottery sherds from the Near East, a corpus of stamp seals from ancient Iran, several thousands of slides and photographs, the archives of former professors, a collection of plaster casts and a film library. Since October 2011, these collections have been digitized and organised into archives and virtual exhibitions. This work has proved a valuable training instrument for students, who learn about the objects and their history but also significantly improve their IT skills.

DIGITAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AS MULTI-AGENT SYSTEM: STUDY OF THE EDUCATIONAL AGENTS EVALUATIVE POSITIONS IN RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1026-1038
Author(s):  
Elena G. Pozdeeva ◽  
Olga D. Shipunova ◽  
Vladimir V. Evseev ◽  
Irina P. Berezovskaya ◽  
Elena M. Gashkova
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Educational Environment ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Education Quality ◽  
Digital Learning ◽  
Digital Learning Environment ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
The University

Purpose of the study: Sociological analysis of the university education digitalization; identifying the evaluative positions for the educational process agents; study of motivational factors for applying to online courses; comparative analysis of evaluative positions in terms of information exchange effectiveness in the digital learning environment and education quality. Methodology: We utilize sociological survey and comparative analysis to identify significant motivations of agents, to evaluate the quality of education by criteria of freedom of choice, preference for the learning format, individualization of the educational route. The empirical base consists of sociological data obtained by online and offline questioning. Principal Findings: The revealed trends of diversity and target conjugation in the university educational environment agent’s positions reflect the institutional shifts in the educational system. These bring about changes in the social role repertoire, the revision of norms and values in the context of the rapid growth of digital practices. Applications of this study: The study results can serve as a basis for improving the university's educational policy and technologies for information support of the educational process. Identifying the problem points of agency and their target conjugation seems to be a tool of social technology to achieve the effectiveness of digital education. Novelty of this study: We give accent to multi-agent approach in the study of distance learning, a comprehensive assessment of information exchange and motivational factors of interacting agents in the university educational environment, education quality evaluation by the criterion of meeting the expectations of students, teachers and administration in the context of learning environment digitalization.

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