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Over the last few decades, satellite radar altimetry has developed enabling a wide range of applications, including the monitoring of lakes. As a method to measure lake water level time series, satellite radar altimetry contributes to gaps in data of in-situ networks in time and space, which is freely available, continuous, global, regular, and precise. However, depending on the location, shape, size, and surrounding environment of the lakes, the accuracy of water heights inferred from altimeters varies significantly. The accuracy of water heights also strongly depends on the quality of space-born instruments, with modern models having evolved from radar altimeters launched in the 1990 s. To determine the level of accuracy of radar altimeters, it is necessary to use ground observations of lake heights. However, the measurements performed onboard by altimeters and on the ground by water level gauges are not directly comparable because the physical properties and scaling of the measurements are completely different. In this study, we present an approach which permits realistic inter-comparison of water levels, in relation to a large lake with a large number of hydrological stations (at least 10) and the presence of at least 10 satellite measurements per month (on the example of lake Baikal), in order to provide diagnostics on the quality of the radar altimeter and statistics of the errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When solving the problem of identifying similar records in different datasets (known as Entity Resolution or ER), one big challenge is the lack of enough labeled data. Which is crucial for building strong machine learning models, but getting this data can be expensive and time-consuming. Active Machine Learning (ActiveML) is a helpful approach because it cleverly picks the most useful pieces of data to learn from. It uses two main ideas: informativeness and representativeness. Typical ActiveML methods used in ER usually depend too much on just one of these ideas, which can make them less effective, especially when starting with very little data. Our research introduces a new combined method that uses both ideas together. We created two versions of this method, called DPQ and STQ, and tested them on eleven different real-world datasets. The results showed that our new method improves ER by producing better scores, more stable models, and faster learning with less training data compared to existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Geographic biases cause error when estimating species occupancy. • Using theory and simulations, we show that error is larger at finer resolutions. • Estimates of occupancy are also more "useful" at finer scales. • So, there is a trade-off between "usefulness" and accuracy. Species occupancy is often defined as the proportion of areal units (sites) in a landscape that the focal species occupies, but it is usually estimated from the subset of sites that have been sampled. Assuming no measurement error, we show that three quantities–the degree of sampling bias (in terms of site selection), the proportion of sites that have been sampled and the variability of true occupancy across sites–determine the extent to which a sample-based estimate of occupancy differs from its true value across the wider landscape. That these are the only three quantities (measurement error notwithstanding) to affect the accuracy of estimates of species occupancy is the fundamental insight of the "Meng equation", an algebraic re-expression of statistical error. We use simulations to show how each of the three quantities vary with the spatial resolution of the analysis and that absolute estimation error is lower at coarser resolutions. Absolute error scales similarly with resolution regardless of the size and clustering of the virtual species' distribution. Finely resolved estimates of species occupancy have the potential to be more useful than coarse ones, but this potential is only realised if the estimates are at least reasonably accurate. Consequently, wherever there is the potential for sampling bias, there is a trade-off between spatial resolution and accuracy, and the Meng equation provides a theoretical framework in which analysts can consider the balance between the two. An obvious next step is to consider the implications of the Meng equation for estimating a time trend in species occupancy, where it is the confounding of error and true change that is of most interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is the ethnic representativeness of the teaching profession in England. The novel methodology does more than simply count how many ethnicities exist, but also takes into account the relative size of the different ethnicities and tracks changes in the diversity of the teaching workforce compared to that of the general population over the ten years between the 2011 and 2021 census. It finds that while the teaching profession is getting more diverse, it is becoming less representative of the general population, which is increasing in diversity more rapidly. The paper's methodology shows the way forward for policy-makers and similar analyses in Developing and Global South economies where the collection of relevant data is less established. • Measuring ethnic diversity should take account of the relative sizes of the different ethnicities. • The teaching profession should look and sound like the communities it serves. • The diversity of the teaching profession in England varies very significantly by region. • The teaching profession is getting more diverse, but becoming less representative of the population. • There are methodological lessons to be learned for measuring diversity in less data-rich countries such as those in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The generalizability of outcomes from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in oncology is a frequent concern. Given the prevalence and multidisciplinary management of rectal cancer, understanding the generalizability of rectal cancer RCTs is critical to surgical oncologists. Methods: An exhaustive literature review identified 100 non-metastatic rectal cancer RCTs published in English over the past 10 years investigating surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy. In order to evaluate the representativeness of these RCTs compared to the USA and each continent's rectal cancer populations, demographic characteristics were stratified by surgical versus chemoradiotherapy (CRT) trial and by continent then compared with the National Cancer Database and CANCER TODAY using chi-squared and Welch's t-tests. Results: Of the 100 trials identified, 65% enrolled significantly younger patients, and 38% enrolled a significantly greater proportion of males than the US rectal cancer population. These demographic differences were more prominent among CRT trials than surgical trials. Half of all trials enrolled patients who were on average more than 7 years younger and enrolled a 5% greater proportion of males than their respective continental rectal cancer populations. Patients enrolled in trials had more advanced cancers than their corresponding continental populations. Sociodemographic data was rarely reported. Conclusion: Patients enrolled in trials were younger, predominantly male, and had advanced stage cancer when compared to the rectal cancer population. Sociodemographic variables are underreported, further limiting equal participation in clinical trials. Future rectal cancer RCTs should strive to recruit representative samples. To enhance recruitment of women and underrepresented minorities, tailored recruitment strategies must be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Irradiance based measure of solar yields in the Netherlands. • Estimates are on a regional, national, daily and annual basis. • Current annual yields for 2016 and 2017 were under and over estimated. • Sensitivity analysis for representativeness of photovoltaic system population. • Orientation, tilt and inverter to photovoltaic capacity ratio are important factors. This paper presents a classical estimation problem for calculating the energy generated by photovoltaic solar energy systems, on a daily, annual, regional and national basis. Our methodology relies on two data sources: PVOutput , an online portal with solar energy production measurements, and modelled irradiance data available for large parts of Africa and Europe, from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. Combining these, we obtain probability functions of observing energy production, given the irradiation. These are applied to a PV systems database, using Monte Carlo sampling , allowing daily and annual solar energy production to be calculated. These are, in turn, used to calculate solar energy production per municipality. As a case study, we apply this methodology to one country in particular, namely the Netherlands. By examining the variation in our estimates as a result of taking different subsets of PVOutput systems with certain specifications such as azimuth, tilt and inverter loading ratio, we obtain specific annual energy yields in the range of 877 - 946 kWh / kW p and 838 - 899 kWh / kW p for 2016 and 2017 respectively. The current method used at Statistics Netherlands assumes this to be 875 kWh / kW p , irrespective of irradiation, meaning the yields were underestimated in 2016 and overestimated in 2017. In the case of the Netherlands, this research demonstrates that an irradiation based measure of solar energy generation is necessary. More generally, this research shows that different types of open data sources may be combined to develop models that calculate the energy production of PV system populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recovery and identification of wood charcoals from soil not associated to archaeological excavation is called pedoanthracology. Researchers in this field use different sampling methods, and only one study, in a temperate context, has compared their efficiency so far. In this paper, we compare the efficiency of three sampling methods on charcoal concentration (>4 mm) and on taxonomic representativeness in a tropical environment for the first time. These methods are pit sampling, auger sampling and opportunistic handpicking of charcoal on tree uprooting mounds or in the soil excavated during the digging of a pit. Our results suggest that the two digging methods (pit and auger) allow to recover similar charcoal concentrations whatever the site and the depth under consideration. But as expected, the charcoal concentration of a site depends on its history (e.g. type of activity). We also show that the estimation of the minimal sampling effort required to obtain taxonomically representative assemblages, in terms of number of charcoals and of auger samplings, varied greatly depending on the site and on the presence of overrepresented taxa. Finally, our results show that auger cores were often monospecific (34%). Nevertheless, they allowed to recover different taxa from the pit method, with 18–21% of the taxa exclusive to the first method and 30–40% of the taxa exclusive to the second one in the sites under consideration. Charcoals from opportunistic handpicking also allowed to improve the taxonomic diversity of the whole assemblage of a site with 5–15% of the taxa being exclusive to this method. The three methods are therefore complementary and we suggest to use the three of them to obtain the best taxonomic diversity in an anthracological assemblage and to overcome the specific biases of each method. With this study, we hope that we will help tropical (pedo)anthracologists to optimize charcoal sampling in anthropogenic sites were the sampling design cannot benefit from archaeological excavations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labeling a sample in label distribution learning is highly expensive because it involves several labels at the same time and also requires assigning an exact value as the significance of each label. Therefore, active learning, which lowers the labeling cost by actively querying the labels of the most useful data, becomes especially critical for label distribution learning. Most of the known active query algorithms are for multi-label learning, and applying them directly to label distribution learning will lose some key supervisory information and thus fail to yield satisfactory experimental results. In this paper, we propose a sample diversity selection strategy based on the label distribution morphology, which can select diverse samples with different distribution morphologies from a large number of unlabeled samples for active querying. First, we use the feature space to construct a dissimilarity matrix that describes the pairwise dissimilarity among the unlabeled samples in order to pick a subset of samples that are representative of the unlabeled dataset. Second, using the information about the label distribution morphologies provided by the predicted labels of the unlabeled samples, we design a diversity loss score for each unlabeled sample. This score reflects the degree of difference between the sample and the labeled training sample. Finally, we use a convex optimization method to select valuable samples that are diverse from the labeled samples and represent the distribution of the unlabeled samples. The results of the comparison experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. • Propose a new approach to address the problem of expensive labeling in LDL. • Consider both representativeness and diversity to select multiple samples. • Design a diversity loss score by using label distribution morphology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building stock modelling often employs clustering techniques on the segmented stock data to identify representative archetypes, enabling cost-effective analyses while retaining the diversity and characteristics of the overall stock. However, the effectiveness of these archetypes in representing the original stock attributes remains under-explored, a factor essential for meaningful interpretations of the model outputs. This study investigated the influence of segmentation level, clustering evaluation metric and variable count on archetype representativeness by applying the k -prototype algorithm to the English Housing Survey data. Pre-clustering segmentation significantly influenced the outcomes, leading to the introduction of "minimum segmentation frequency" (MSF) to retain feature diversity in the segmented data. Sensitivity analysis revealed that lower MSF values improve building stock representation, while the choice of clustering evaluation metrics influences the optimal number of archetypes for a given MSF. The Davies-Bouldin index consistently identified more archetypes and achieved higher representativeness than the Calinski-Harabasz and Silhouette indices. A comprehensive archetype development framework was devised considering the influencing factors such as geographical and temporal scales, computational cost and research focus. This framework serves as a flexible guide for developing representative archetypes in future building stock modelling studies. • Segmentation, variable count and evaluation metric affect archetype representativeness. • Partitioning using minimum segmentation frequency enhances representativeness. • Low minimum segmentation frequency and variable count improves representativeness. • The Davies-Bouldin index achieved the highest representativeness consistently. • A comprehensive framework for the development of archetypes was devised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Representativeness and reachability explain choices in lotteries and strategic games. • Adding such Betting Numbers to a model generally improves that models datafit. • Adding layers of best-responses to Betting Numbers + uniform randomisation mix does not clearly improvefit • but worsens predictive power. • Lottery Players Fallacy explains i.a. the seeker advantage in Hide & Seek. This paper examines games with non-neutral option labels (such as "A", "B", "A", "A") and finds surprisingly invariant behaviour across games. The behaviour closely resembles the choices people make when they have to bet on one of the options in individual lotteries. An option's 'representativeness' (lack of distinguishing features) and 'reachability' (physical centrality, salience, and valence) determine choice behaviour in both the lotteries and the highly strategic games. There is no evidence of people best-responding to others' betting(-like) behaviour. This is in line with the idea that once people decide that strategic reasoning would not take them any further, they pick an alternative as if they were betting on one of their 'current best-responses'. The findings explain the well-documented seeker advantage in hide-and-seek games, as well as why participants often display behaviour that could be exploited by others. On top, they help understand why in national lotteries, people also tend to bet on identical subsets of the available numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Current manual surveillance is not efficient, exhaustive, or representative. • High-risk surgeries are systematically missed by surveillance. • C-reactive protein levels and antibiotic use are sensitive predictors of infection. • Semi-automated surveillance implementation may reduce the workload by 52%. To assess whether electronic records data could improve the efficiency, exhaustiveness, and representativeness of SSI surveillance by selecting a group of high-risk patients for manual review. Colorectal surgeries (2016–2018) and cholecystectomies (2017–2018) were selected. Post-surgical antibiotic use, positive culture, C-reactive protein (CRP) values, body temperature, leukocyte count, surgical re-intervention, admission to the emergency room, and hospital readmission were retrieved. For representativeness, procedures registered in HAI-Net were compared with non-included procedures, and the validity of each variable (or combination) was tested considering the presence of SSI as the gold standard. The proportion of procedures flagged for manual review by each criterion was estimated. Little more than 50% of procedures were included in HAI-Net (SSI risk: 10.6% for colorectal and 2.9% for cholecystectomies). Non-included procedures showed higher proportions of infection markers. Antibiotic use and CRP >100 mg/dl presented the highest sensitivity for both surgical groups, while antibiotic use achieved the highest positive predictive value in both groups (22% and 21%, respectively) and flagged fewer colorectal procedures (47.7%). Current SSI surveillance has major limitations. Thus, the reported incidence seems unreliable and underestimated. Antibiotic use appears to be the best criterion to select a sub-sample of procedures for manual review, improving the exhaustiveness and efficiency of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is unclear if clinical trial results including patients who meet trial eligibility criteria, are applicable to actual patients in daily practice (generalizability). Moreover, the extent to which are trial participants different from patients seen in daily practice (representativeness) is also unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the representativeness of the patients registered in randomized clinical trials to patients in daily practice and examine the generalizability of trial results to daily practice. We compared the results of surgical trials conducted by the Japan Clinical Oncology Group with data from two Japanese cancer registries, representing patients seen in daily practice. We compared overall survival (OS) between trial participants and registry patients to evaluate representativeness of trial participants. We then compared the OS of registry patients who received open surgery (OP) and laparoscopic surgery (LAP) to evaluate the generalizability of trial results. We analyzed 3051 patients (701 in JCOG0212, 2350 registry patients) with rectal cancer and 3116 patients (1057 in JCOG0404, 2059 registry patients) with colon cancer. Trial participants tended to possess lower clinical stages. Multivariable analyses revealed registry patients with significantly worse survival compared with trial participants. The hazard ratio of LAP to OP among registry patients was 0.305 (95% CI; 0.048–2.188), which did not meet the prespecified generalizability criteria of 0.9. Our results failed to ensure either the representativeness or generalizability of clinical trial results, compared to daily practice. Careful considerations are required when applying trial results to patients in daily practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a major aim of cognitive science is to understand human cognition, our conclusions are based on unrepresentative samples of the world's population. A new wave of cross-cultural cognitive science has sought to remedy this with studies that are increasing in scope, scale, and visibility. Here, I review the state of this new wave of research. The portrait of human cognition that emerges is one of variations on a theme, with species-typical capacities shaped by culture and individual experience. The new wave has expanded our understanding of processes underlying human variation and cumulative cultural change, including mechanisms of social learning and cultural transmission. Less consensus has been reached, however, on the cognitive foundations of human nature. The promise of cross-cultural cognitive science will not be fully realized unless we continue to be more inclusive of the world's populations and strive for a more complete cognitive portrait of our species. Cognitive science faces a representativeness problem, with most research occurring in educated, industrialized populations. A review of 10 years of cross-cultural research shows progress in remedying this, but research is still bimodally distributed between educated city dwellers and small rural populations. The decade has seen progress in understanding individual cognition (e.g., perception, reasoning), interpersonal cognition (theory of mind, personality), and societal cognition (social learning, norms, cooperation, morality). Formal models of social learning and cultural evolution are improving our understanding of the mechanisms underlying human variation and similarity, but we remain far from a satisfying account of human nature and human cognitive universals. Without a more inclusive cognitive science, our portrait of human cognition will remain incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frail older adults make up a substantial portion of the older adult population. However, frail patients are often excluded from randomized controlled trials. This underrepresentation restricts the extent to which trial findings can be generalized to this population. We compared a sample from the Canadian 5C Randomized Controlled Trial investigating comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) in the geriatric oncology setting in terms of frailty to patients referred to the Older Adults with Cancer Clinic (OACC) to determine if the trial sample was representative of the normal geriatric oncology practice. Baseline CGA data of 5C Trial participants seen at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PM), were compared to data from OACC patients that were seen during the duration of the 5C trial (between April 2018 and April 2020) and that satisfied the 5C inclusion criteria. To assess the frailty of samples, sex, age, disease site, comorbidity level, medical optimization, social supports, functional status, falls risk, nutrition, cognition, and mood were compared between 5C participants and OACC patients using Fisher's exact and independent samples t -test. A sample of 115 5C participants and 205 OACC patients were included. The mean age of 5C participants and OACC patients was 75.4 and 81.6 years, respectively (p < 0.001). The distribution of disease sites was significantly different between the samples (p < 0.001) and OACC patients were also significantly more impaired compared to 5C participants in comorbidity (23.4% versus 10.4% high comorbidity) (p = 0.001), IADL dependence (55.1% versus 42.6%) (p = 0.036), impaired physical function (70.6% versus 31.3%) (p < 0.001), falls risk (67.8% versus 27%) (p < 0.001), impaired nutrition (55.6% versus 40.9%) (p = 0.014), and cognition (47.2% versus 10%) (p < 0.001). There were no differences in sex, medication optimization, poor social supports, and impaired mood between the samples. The 5C sample was less frail and younger than patients seen in the geriatric oncology clinic. Finding strategies to address barriers to the inclusion of frailer older adults is important to increase their representation in future trials to allow findings to be generalized to this vulnerable population. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov # NCT03154671 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Most comparative drug policy analyses utilise measures of drug use, often from general population surveys (GPS). However, the limitations of GPS are well-recognised, including the small numbers of people who use illicit drugs sampled. Web surveys offer a potential solution to such issues. Therefore EMCDDA conducted a study to assess the potential for using such surveys to supplement information obtained from GPS.Methods: The European Web Survey on Drugs (EWSD) asked about use of cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine and MDMA in 14 countries from 2016 to 2018. Each participant country translated the questionnaire as necessary and devised its own sampling strategy. Individuals aged 18+, resident in the participant country, who had used one or more of the drugs covered by the survey in the past 12 months were included in the analysis. Participation was anonymous and voluntary.Results: More than 40,000 people completed the survey, with recruitment mostly through social media. Larger samples of users of all drug types than found in GPS were generally obtained. However, the respondent profiles differed markedly between countries, e.g. the proportion aged 18-24 ranged from 30% to 80%. The results relating to use showed both inter-country similarities and differences, e.g. mean daily amounts of cocaine used varied between countries but increases in amounts used with increased frequency of use were similar. Price data showed good external validity.Conclusion: Web surveys offer the possibility of collecting information from large numbers people who use illicit drugs quickly and cheaply and can fill important gaps in our knowledge of patterns of use, particularly by recreational users. However, they also have limitations. Standardising questionnaires and approaches to data cleaning and analysis facilitates comparisons between countries but obtaining comparable samples may be challenging. Multinational surveys need to balance standardisation of methods with responsiveness to differing country contexts; our collaborative model does this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We look for effects of roadside data collection on the accuracy of cropland maps. • We simulate and compare Random, Roadside, and Transect sampling in four study sites. • Roadside surveys are less representative of the landscapes than Random surveys. • Random and Roadside data sets of similar representativeness yield comparable accuracy. • Transect sampling decreases the accuracy by up to 15%. Cropland maps derived from satellite imagery have become a common source of information to estimate food production, support land use policies, and measure the environmental impacts of agriculture. Cropland classification models are typically calibrated with data collected from roadside surveys which enable the sampling of large areas at a relatively low cost. However, there is a risk of providing biased data as environmental and management gradients may not be fully captured from road networks, thereby violating the assumption of representativeness of calibration data. Despite being widely adopted, the potential biases of roadside sampling have so far not been thoroughly addressed. In this study, we looked for evidence of these biases by comparing three sampling strategies: Random sampling, Roadside sampling, and Transect sampling – a spatially constrained variant of Roadside sampling. In these three strategies, non-cropland data are randomly distributed as they can be photo-interpreted. Based on reference maps at 30 m in four study sites, we followed a Monte Carlo approach to generate multiple realizations of each sampling strategy for ten sample sizes. The effect of the sampling strategy was then assessed in terms of representativeness of the data set collected and accuracy of the resulting maps. Results showed that data sets obtained from Roadside sampling were significantly less representative than those obtained from Random sampling but the resulting maps were only marginally less accurate (2% difference). Transect sampling captured systematically less variability than Random or Roadside sampling which led to differences in accuracy as large as 15%. The effect of sample size on accuracy varied across sites but generally leveled off after reaching 3000 pixels. Augmenting the size of Transect samples improved the classification accuracy but not sufficiently to match the performance of the other sampling strategies. Finally, we found that Random and Roadside training sets with similar representativeness yield comparable accuracy. Therefore, we conclude that roadside sampling can be a viable source of training data for cropland mapping if the range of environmental and management gradients is surveyed. This underlines the importance of survey planning to identify those routes that capture most variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We propose an active semi-supervised learning algorithm with multiple criteria. • The criteria are representativeness, diversity, and variance reduction of a model. • We use clustering information to develop representativeness and diversity criteria. • The proposed algorithm is useful to avoid selection of undesirable samples. Abstract In many practical machine learning problems, the acquisition of labeled data is often expensive and time consuming. To reduce this labeling cost, active learning has been introduced in many scientific fields. This study considers the problem of active learning of a regression model in the context of an optimal experimental design. Classical optimal experimental design approaches are based on the least square errors of labeled samples. Recently, a couple of active learning approaches that take advantage of both labeled and unlabeled data have been developed based on Laplacian regularized regression models with a single criterion. However, these approaches are susceptible to selecting undesirable samples when the number of initially labeled samples is small. To address this susceptibility, this study proposes an active learning method that considers multiple complementary criteria. These criteria include sample representativeness, diversity information, and variance reduction of the Laplacian regularization model. Specifically, we developed novel density and diversity criteria based on a clustering algorithm to identify the samples that are representative of their distributions, while minimizing their redundancy. Experiments were conducted on synthetic and benchmark data to compare the performance of the proposed method with that of existing methods. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed active learning algorithm outperforms its existing counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Non-human biota in radiological risk assessment is typically evaluated using Reference Organisms (ROs) or Reference Animals and Plants (RAPs), for all exposure situations. However, it still remains open whether the use of an increased number of species would improve the ability to demonstrate protectiveness of the environment. In this paper, the representativeness of a broader list of fauna is tested in terms of the geometrical characteristics and habits for radiological risk assessments in the case of routine discharges from a nuclear installation: the Cadarache centre. A list of terrestrial animal species, compiled from ecological inventories carried out around it was evaluated. A first survey around the centre inventoried >400 terrestrial fauna species, which were then filtered to reduce the number to 28 species for which dose assessments were carried out. Despite the differences between geometries for those site-specific species and the ROs (including RAPs), the absorbed dose rates calculated for both were very close (within a factor of two). Regardless of the studied organism, the absorbed dose rates calculated for the discharge scenario were mainly related to internal exposure, particularly for tritium (3H) and carbon 14 (14C), showing that there would be an acceptable dose rates difference between species from the same organism group. Additionally, sensitivity analyses were conducted to determine if the use of generic, predefined ROs was enough to assure an adequate protection of endangered species. It was observed that for every radionuclide the difference between assessments for site-specific species and ROs are unlikely to exceed a factor of 3. Hence, the result of this evaluation indicates that the use of generic ROs for non-human biota radiological risk assessment covers sufficiently other species, including endangered ones. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Ecological risk assessment of radiation is based on the use of reference organism (RO). • In a realistic scenario dose rates of site-specific vs reference organism were similar. • Considering species size and habitats do not improve numerical risk assessment quality. • 3H and 14C contribution dominated dose rates in our case study scenario. • Use of ROs covers sufficiently other species belonging to same group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Understanding the environmental profile of a product computed from the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework is sometimes challenging due to the high number of environmental indicators involved. The objective here, in guiding interpretation of LCA results, is to highlight the importance of each impact category for each product alternative studied. For a given product, the proposed methodology identifies the impact categories that are worth focusing on, relatively to a whole set of products from the same cumulated database. The approach extends the analysis of Representativeness Indices (RI) developed by Esnouf et al. (2018). It proposes a new operational tool for calculating RIs at the level of impact categories for a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) result. Impact categories and LCI results are defined as vectors within a standardized vector space and a procedure is proposed to treat issues coming from the correlation of impact category vectors belonging to the same Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method. From the cumulated ecoinvent database, LCI results of the Chinese and the German electricity mixes illustrate the method. Relevant impact categories of the EU-standardized ILCD method are then identified. RI results from all products of a cumulated LCI database were therefore analysed to assess the main tendencies of the impact categories of the ILCD method. This operational approach can then significantly contribute to the interpretation of the LCA results by pointing to the specificities of the inventories analysed and for identifying the main representative impact categories. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Representativeness index (RI) contextualizes the LCA results of each LCI result. • An operational tool to compute RI is proposed (python package). • An orthogonalization procedure is defined to solve impact correlation issue. • RI tendencies of the whole ecoinvent database are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Validate the dynamic load-based testing and rating methodology for residential heat pumps. • Compare the dynamic performance of a heat pump measured in a residential house facility with that measured in a psychrometric test laboratory. • The simplified virtual building modeling approach effectively characterizes the load and dynamics of a typical residential building. • The load-based testing methodology accurately characterizes the heat pump dynamic performance in the lab compared to the residential house. A load-based testing method has been proposed to measure the overall dynamic performance of heat pumps and air conditioners, including their embedded controls and thermostats, in a laboratory setting. This method enables a test unit to respond to field-representative conditions emulated using a virtual building model. To adopt this methodology for next-generation rating standards, it is necessary to evaluate its ability to accurately capture a system's dynamic performance in a laboratory compared to a typical residential house. In this study, a 3-ton single-stage heat pump was initially tested in a two-story house located inside an environmental chamber with controllable ambient conditions. The same make and model of the heat pump was then tested in a psychrometric testing facility, employing the load-based testing method. The study aims to compare the cooling and heating mode performance and dynamic response between the house and laboratory tests, validate the virtual building modeling approach of the methodology, and determine load-based laboratory tests' effectiveness in capturing dynamic interactions between equipment and a residential house. The differences in coefficient of performance (COP) of the test unit between the two facilities were within 3 %, except for 9 % at 95°F (35 °C) and 5 % at 104°F (40 °C) outdoor temperature cooling dry-coil tests. The heat pump's cycling rate response, representing its dynamic response, matched well between the lab and house results. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the load-based testing methodology in capturing the dynamic performance of heat pumps in a laboratory setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Chapter 1.4 of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Aquatic Animal Health Code, an entire country or zone can be classified as free of a disease only if there is compelling evidence that all susceptible populations within the country or zone are free. However, the methods for achieving freedom are not prescribed in the WOAH standards and guidelines. Within this context, this paper describes a novel methodology to determine if surveillance results can be extrapolated from a study population to a target population. A framework of six criteria was developed to standardize a method for extrapolating surveillance results to other susceptible populations that have not been sampled. Criteria 1 assesses the internal validity for the freedom claim on the source population. Criteria 2 assesses which other susceptible populations have a non-negligible probability of exposure. Criteria 3 assesses whether the risk of infection upon exposure of the source population is the same or greater than each of the other susceptible populations. Finally, Criteria 4, 5 and 6 assess if the other susceptible populations would transmit the infection to the source population or if they have the same exposure pathways as the source population. We illustrate the use of this novel methodology using two hypothetical case scenarios. The presented methodology has the advantage of being applicable either retrospectively or prospectively. When applied retrospectively, it can be used to assess if the surveillance results of the source population can be extrapolated to the target population. When applied prospectively it can be used to design a more efficient surveillance system by selecting source populations from which it is easier to extrapolate surveillance results to the rest of the target population. Conclusions drawn using this methodology depend on the validity of the assumptions made when working through the methodology. We therefore recommend cautious application of the criteria and thorough review of all assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Subfossil chironomid assemblage exhibited a distinct bathymetric distribution pattern. • The deepest zone showed the least representativeness of entire-lake assemblage. • Chironomid assemblage showed a depth-specific response to environmental change. • Mid-depth zones were recommended as the coring sites for paleolimnological studies in large, deep lakes. In paleolimnology, ecological trajectories of biological communities are typically reconstructed using a sediment core from the deepest part of a lake. However, the representativeness of chironomid assemblages from the profundal zone and its influence on ecological response to environmental change in large, deep lakes remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a study on subfossil chironomids in Fuxian Lake, including thirty-five surface sediment samples and two sediment cores from different water depths. Our findings reveal a distinct bathymetric distribution pattern of subfossil chironomid assemblages attributed to limited homogenization in the large, deep lake. The profundal assemblages exhibited the lowest richness representativeness, while nearshore assemblages showed the least similarity to the entire-lake assemblage. Consequently, the response pattern of chironomid assemblage to the environmental change varied with depth. Two notable shifts in the mid-depth core, occurring in 1979 CE and 2005 CE, were primarily attributed to eutrophication processes. However, the chironomid assemblage from the deepest zone exhibited only one significant change in 2005 CE, likely indicating exacerbated hypoxia in the profundal zone. Our combined analysis of surface samples and sediment cores underscores that the profundal zone, where bottom water is characterized by low temperature and anoxia, is unsuitable as a coring site in large, deep lakes due to its extremely simplified species composition. Instead, mid-depth zones should be prioritized as candidate coring sites in large, deep lakes, given their relatively high richness representativeness, head capsule concentration, and stable sedimentary conditions. Specifically, we recommended retrieving sedimentary cores around the water depth of 50 m when conducting subfossil chironomid analysis in Fuxian Lake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In large-scale surveys, it is often necessary to distribute a preset sample size among a number of strata. Researchers must make a decision between prioritizing overall representativeness or precision of stratum estimates. Hence, I evaluated different sample allocation strategies based on stratum size.Methods: The strategies evaluated herein included allocation proportional to stratum population; equal sample for all strata; and proportional to the natural logarithm, cubic root, and square root of the stratum population. This study considered the fact that, from a preset sample size, the dispersion index of stratum sampling fractions is correlated with the population estimator error and the dispersion index of stratum-specific sampling errors would measure the inequality in precision distribution. Identification of a balanced and efficient strategy was based on comparing those both dispersion indices.Results: Balance and efficiency of the strategies changed depending on overall sample size. As the sample to be distributed increased, the most efficient allocation strategies were equal sample for each stratum; proportional to the logarithm, to the cubic root, to square root; and that proportional to the stratum population, respectively.Conclusions: Depending on sample size, each of the strategies evaluated could be considered in optimizing the sample to keep both overall representativeness and stratum-specific precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure factors form the basis of reliable exposure estimates. The growing demand for population-specific exposure factors for complex exposure models is challenged by continuously declining response rates in surveys: Current survey methods clearly need a boost by user-friendly and efficient technologies. We compared the performance of a smartphone app to a paper questionnaire based on a survey on exposure factors that offered the choice between both methods and based on an observational study that investigated the performance of both methods. The development costs for smartphone app and paper questionnaire were comparable with 15′000 and 13′500 US-$, respectively. The cost efficiency for the paper questionnaire was much better than for the app, but model calculations show that the cost efficiency of the app improves considerably with adequate promotion and for larger surveys, especially for those with regular repetitions. Barcode scanning of consumer products by app saved time and effort of the participants and enhanced reliability. The app was able to attract the attention of younger adults between 20 and 40 years old: Thus, the limited representativity for younger age groups that sometimes is observed for paper-based surveys may be enhanced by including the option to use an app in a mixed-mode survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It seems no longer possible to produce knowledge, even biological knowledge regardless of social, cultural and economic environments in which they were observed. Therefore never the term "social medicine" or more generally "social biology" has appeared more appropriate. This way of linking the social and the biological exceeds the sole social medicine by involving also other medical disciplines. As such, forensics, whose an important activity is represented by clinical forensics in charge of types of violence (physical, psychological, sexual, abuse) and persons held in custody could see its practice heavily modified through the use of various data describing both the clinical situation of patients but also their context of life. A better understanding of mechanisms of violence development and potentially a better prevention of these situations allow forensics not to be restricted (or seen as limited to) a "descriptive medicine", but to be seen also as a preventive and curative medicine. In this evolution, the potential contribution of Big Data appears significant insofar as information on a wide range of characteristics of the environment or context of life (social, economic, cultural) can be collected and be connected with health data, for example to develop models on social determinants of health. In the common thinking, the use of a larger amount of data and consequently a multiplicity of information via a multiplicity of databases would allow to access to a greater objectivity of a reality that we are approaching by fragmented viewpoints otherwise. In this light, the "bigger" and "more varied" would serve the "better" or at least the "more true". But to be able to consider together or to link different databases it will be necessary to know how to handle this diversity regarding hypotheses made to build databases and regarding their purposes (by whom, for what bases have been made). It will be equally important to question the representativeness of situations that led to the creation of a database and to question the validity of information and data according to the secondary or tertiary uses anticipated from their original purpose. This step of data validity control for the anticipated use is a sine qua non condition, particularly in the field of public health, to guarantee a sufficient level of quality and exploit in the best way the benefits of Big Data approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the eddy-covariance (EC) method to determine net surface-atmosphere exchange relies on extensive simplifications of the mass balance concept. Among others, it is assumed that the 3-D flux field within a control volume is divergence-free, which is shown to be violated e.g. from large-eddy simulations. To practically evaluate the severity of these assumptions, case studies have monitored the surrounding of an EC tower, so the control volume can be represented more explicitly. Alternatively, diagnostic tests during data processing can be used to subset the EC data for periods that more likely fulfill the underlying assumptions. However, these existing methods are constrained either by their degree of realism, resource demand, temporal coverage, varying spatial representativeness, or combinations thereof. It is hypothesized that these deficiencies can be overcome by using the environmental response function (ERF) technique: Relating flux observations at very high spatio-temporal resolution to meteorological forcings and surface properties, and utilizing the extracted relationships to map a single, regular and stationary control volume explicitly in 3-D space and time. Here, the novel ERF virtual control volume (VCV) concept and its implications are derived, and Xu et al. (this issue) are presenting its first practical application. Initial results show that even from a single EC tower, ERF-VCV reduces advective errors by at least one order of magnitude, and incorporates net low-frequency flux contributions. In the same process tower location bias is treated through attaining a fixed-frame, thus equitable and time-invariant representation of the net surface-atmosphere exchange across a target domain. With regard to the frequently observed non-closure of the surface energy balance, this offers the potential for reconciling “spatial heterogeneity” and “storage term” theories. In extension, ERF promises a rectifying observational operator for unbiased model-data comparison, assimilation, and process representation at model grid scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) characterises all the exchanges between human driven activities and the environment, thus representing a powerful approach for tackling the environmental impact of a production system. However, LCA practitioners must still choose the appropriate Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) method to use and are expected to justify this choice: impacts should be relevant facing the concerns of the study and misrepresentations should be avoided. This work aids practitioners in evaluating the adequacy between the assessed environmental issues and studied production system. Based on a geometrical standpoint of LCA framework, Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) and LCIA methods were localized in the vector space spanned by elementary flows. A proximity measurement, the Representativeness Index (RI), is proposed to explore the relationship between those datasets (LCIs and LCIA methods) through an angular distance. RIs highlight LCIA methods that measure issues for which the LCI can be particularly harmful. A high RI indicates a close proximity between a LCI and a LCIA method, and highlights a better representation of the elementary flows by the LCIA method. To illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach, representativeness of LCIA methods regarding four electricity mix production LCIs from the ecoinvent database are presented. RIs for 18 LCIA methods (accounting for a total of 232 impact categories) were calculated on these LCIs and the relevance of the methods are discussed. RIs prove to be a criterion for distinguishing the different LCIA methods and could thus be employed by practitioners for deeper interpretations of LCIA results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We introduce an agent-based model for the learning and decision-making process of stock market traders when catastrophic and unprecedented events materialize within a behavioural heterogeneous agent context with bounded rationality. • We include a beliefs' correction mechanism through which agents revise their posterior probability by inflating the likelihood of the most representative state and deflating the less representative. • We calibrate the model using daily values of the STOXX Europe 600 Index over the period from 10 July 2019 to 30 June 2020 to explore the anatomy of the COVID-19 impact on stock markets. • We find that the extreme event impact on stock price is delayed and needs confirmation of bad news to align single risk perceptions; moreover, the deflation mechanism of less representative news seems to disappear after the extreme event. We model the learning process of market traders during the unprecedented COVID-19 event. We introduce a behavioural heterogeneous agents' model with bounded rationality by including a correction mechanism through representativeness (Gennaioli et al., 2015). To inspect the market crash induced by the pandemic, we calibrate the STOXX Europe 600 Index, when stock markets suffered from the greatest single-day percentage drop ever. Once the extreme event materializes, agents tend to be more sensitive to all positive and negative news, subsequently moving on to close-to-rational. We find that the deflation mechanism of less representative news seems to disappear after the extreme event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our understanding of the frequency and duration of maternal care behaviours in the domestic dog during the first two postnatal weeks is limited, largely due to the inconsistencies in the sampling methodologies that have been employed. In order to develop a more concise picture of maternal care behaviour during this period, and to help establish the sampling method that represents these behaviours best, we compared a variety of time sampling methods Six litters were continuously observed for a total of 96 h over postnatal days 3, 6, 9 and 12 (24 h per day). Frequent (dam presence, nursing duration, contact duration) and infrequent maternal behaviours (anogenital licking duration and frequency) were coded using five different time sampling methods that included: 12-h night (1800–0600 h), 12-h day (0600–1800 h), one hour period during the night (1800–0600 h), one hour period during the day (0600–1800 h) and a one hour period anytime. Each of the one hour time sampling method consisted of four randomly chosen 15-min periods. Two random sets of four 15-min period were also analysed to ensure reliability. We then determined which of the time sampling methods averaged over the three 24-h periods best represented the frequency and duration of behaviours. As might be expected, frequently occurring behaviours were adequately represented by short (one h) sampling periods, however this was not the case with the infrequent behaviour. Thus, we argue that the time sampling methodology employed must match the behaviour of interest. This caution applies to maternal behaviour in altricial species, such as canids, as well as all systematic behavioural observations utilising time sampling methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to explore where the source and sink have the greatest impact on CO 2 background concentration at Waliguan (WLG) station, a statistical method is here proposed to calculate the representative source-sink region. The key to this method is to find the best footprint threshold, and the study is carried out in four parts. Firstly, transport climatology, expressed by total monthly footprint, was simulated by FLEXPART on a 7-day time scale. Surface CO 2 emissions in Eurasia frequently transported to WLG station. WLG station was mainly influenced by the westerlies in winter and partly controlled by the Southeast Asian monsoon in summer. Secondly, CO 2 concentrations, simulated by CT2015, were processed and analyzed through data quality control, screening, fitting and comparing. CO 2 concentrations displayed obvious seasonal variation, with the maximum and minimum concentration appearing in April and August, respectively. The correlation of CO 2 fitting background concentrations was R 2 = 0.91 between simulation and observation. The temporal patterns were mainly correlated with CO 2 exchange of biosphere-atmosphere, human activities and air transport. Thirdly, for the monthly CO 2 fitting background concentrations from CT2015, a best footprint threshold was found based on correlation analysis and numerical iteration using the data of footprints and emissions. The grid cells where monthly footprints were greater than the best footprint threshold were the best threshold area corresponding to representative source-sink region. The representative source-sink region of maximum CO 2 concentration in April was primarily located in Qinghai province, but the minimum CO 2 concentration in August was mainly influenced by emissions in a wider region. Finally, we briefly presented the CO 2 source-sink characteristics in the best threshold area. Generally, the best threshold area was a carbon sink. The major source and sink were relatively weak owing to less human activities and vegetation types in this high altitude area. CO 2 concentrations were more influenced by human activities when air mass passed through many urban areas in summer. Therefore, the combination of footprints and emissions is an effective approach for assessing the source-sink region representativeness of CO 2 background concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the performance of different soil moisture products from AMSR2 and SMOS against the most representative stations within the Yanco study area in the Murrumbidgee catchment, in southeast Australia. AMSR2 Level 3 (L3) soil moisture products retrieved from two versions of brightness temperatures using the Japanese Aerospace eXploration Agency (JAXA) and the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) algorithm were included. For the LPRM algorithm, two different parameterization methods were applied. Furthermore, two versions of SMOS L3 soil moisture product were assessed. The results are contrasted against the use of “random” stations. Accounting for all versions, frequencies and overpasses, the latest versions of the JAXA (JX2) and LPRM (LP3) products were found to surpass the earlier versions (JX1, LP1 and LP2). Soil moisture retrieval based on the latter version of brightness temperature and parameterization scheme improved when C-band observations were used but not X-band. However, X-band retrievals (r: 0.71, MAE: 0.07, RMSD: 0.08 m 3 /m 3 ) were found to perform better than C-band (r: 0.68–0.70, MAE: 0.07–0.09 m 3 /m 3 , RMSD: 0.09–0.10 m 3 /m 3 ). Moreover, an intercomparison between different acquisition times (morning and evening) of AMSR2 X-band products found a better performance from evening overpasses (1:30 pm; r: 0.69–0.77) as opposed to morning overpasses (1:30 am; r: 0.47–0.66). In the case of SMOS, morning (6:00 am; r: 0.77) retrievals were found to be superior over evening (6:00 pm; r: 0.69) retrievals. Overall, both versions of JAXA products, the second and third versions of LPRM X-band products, and two versions of SMOS products were found to meet the mean average error (MAE) goal accuracy of the AMSR2 mission (MAE < 0.08 m 3 /m 3 ) but none of the products achieved the SMOS goal of RMSD < 0.04 m 3 /m 3 . Furthermore, performance of the products differed depending on the statistic used to evaluate them. Consequently, considering the results in this study, JX2 products are recommended if both absolute and temporal accuracy of the soil moisture product is of importance, whereas LP3 X products from evening observations and SMOS version 3.00 (SMOS2) products from morning overpasses are recommended if temporal accuracy is of greater importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Objective The aim of this study was to compare laboratory surveillance with the notifiable diseases surveillance system (NDSS) in South Africa. Methods Data on three tracer notifiable diseases – measles, meningococcal meningitis, and typhoid – were compared to assess data quality, stability, representativeness, sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV), using the Wilcoxon and Chi-square tests, at the 5% significance level. Results For all three diseases, fewer cases were notified than confirmed in the laboratory. Completeness for the laboratory system was higher for measles (63% vs. 47%, p < 0.001) and meningococcal meningitis (63% vs. 57%, p < 0.001), but not for typhoid (60% vs. 63%, p = 0.082). Stability was higher for the laboratory (all 100%) compared to notified measles (24%, p < 0.001), meningococcal meningitis (74%, p < 0.001), and typhoid (36%, p < 0.001). Representativeness was also higher for the laboratory (all 100%) than for notified measles (67%, p = 0.058), meningococcal meningitis (56%, p = 0.023), and typhoid (44%, p = 0.009). The sensitivity of the NDSS was 50%, 98%, and 93%, and the PPV was 20%, 57%, and 81% for measles, meningococcal meningitis, and typhoid, respectively. Conclusions Compared to laboratory surveillance, the NDSS performed poorly on most system attributes. Revitalization of the NDSS in South Africa is recommended to address the completeness, stability, and representativeness of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until now, the purpose of ballast water sampling studies was predominantly limited to general scientific interest to determine the variety of species arriving in ballast water in a recipient port. Knowing the variety of species arriving in ballast water also contributes to the assessment of relative species introduction vector importance. Further, some sampling campaigns addressed awareness raising or the determination of organism numbers per water volume to evaluate the species introduction risk by analysing the propagule pressure of species. A new aspect of ballast water sampling, which this contribution addresses, is compliance monitoring and enforcement of ballast water management standards as set by, e.g., the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention. To achieve this, sampling methods which result in representative ballast water samples are essential. We recommend such methods based on practical tests conducted on two commercial vessels also considering results from our previous studies. The results show that different sampling approaches influence the results regarding viable organism concentrations in ballast water samples. It was observed that the sampling duration (i.e., length of the sampling process), timing (i.e., in which point in time of the discharge the sample is taken), the number of samples and the sampled water quantity are the main factors influencing the concentrations of viable organisms in a ballast water sample. Based on our findings we provide recommendations for representative ballast water sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are strongly associated with men, and women remain underrepresented in these fields. This article puts forward a relational theoretical model on the main challenges that women face to be better represented with regard to reaching leadership positions in STEM careers. A qualitative analysis was conducted using semi-structured interviews. These interviews were with women engineering students from the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Qualitative analysis was used when matching their perceptions with studies identified in the literature. The results indicate that gender stereotypes about the idealization of traditional roles attributed to women, combined with female under-representation in engineering careers, have led to there being an imbalance in their reaching and occupying leadership positions. The results may also imply that these students consider it important for public and organizational policies to be adopted that seek gender parity in the corporate world of STEM. • Women leadership in engineering careers • Women representativeness in workplaces • Women's challenges to reach leadership in engineering • Female engineering students' perceptions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lameness in dairy cows has major negative impacts on animal welfare and production economy. While previous studies have evaluated the prevalence of lameness in single countries, the present literature review is the first overview of the prevalence of lameness in dairy cows globally. This literature review identified 53 studies reporting prevalence of lameness among representative samples of dairy cows and fulfilling a number of specified inclusion criteria (e.g., at least 10 herds and 200 cows, and locomotion scoring by trained observers). A total of 414,950 cows from 3945 herds were included in these 53 studies, which spanned a 30-year period (1989–2020) and included herds from six continents, with the majority from Europe and North America. Across the studies, the mean prevalence of lameness (typically defined as score 3–5 on a 1–5 scale) was 22.8% with a median of 22.0% and a range between studies from 5.1% to 45%, and a within herd range from 0% to 88%. The mean prevalence of severely lame cows (typically defined as score 4–5 on a 1–5 scale) was 7.0% with a median of 6.5% and a range between studies from 1.8% to 21.2%, and a within herd range from 0% to 65%. Over time, it appears that the prevalence of lameness has changed very little. Several different locomotion scoring systems and definitions of (severe) lameness were used across the 53 studies, and this may have affected the reported lameness prevalence. Sampling of herds and cows, inclusion criteria and representativeness also differed between studies. This review offers recommendations for the future capture of information on lameness in dairy cows and identifies potential knowledge gaps. [Display omitted] • A literature review identified 53 studies on dairy cow lameness. • Studies used a variety of locomotion scoring systems and sampling strategies. • Relevant characteristics of herds and cows were lacking in > 50% of studies. • Median lameness prevalence was 22% with large variations between herds and studies. • Prevalence of lameness showed little change between 1989 and 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent offsite recreational fishing surveys have used public landline telephone directories as a sampling frame. Sampling biases inherent in this method are recognised, but are assumed to be corrected through demographic data expansion. However, the rising prevalence of mobile-only households has potentially increased these biases by skewing raw samples towards households that maintain relatively high levels of coverage in telephone directories. For biases to be corrected through demographic expansion, both the fishing participation rate and fishing activity must be similar among listed and unlisted fishers within each demographic group. In this study, we tested for a difference in the fishing activity of listed and unlisted fishers within demographic groups by comparing their avidity (number of fishing trips per year), as well as the platform used (boat or shore) and species targeted on their most recent fishing trip. 3062 recreational fishers were interviewed at 34 tackle stores across 12 residential regions of Queensland, Australia. For each fisher, data collected included their fishing avidity, the platform used and species targeted on their most recent trip, their gender, age, residential region, and whether their household had a listed telephone number. Although the most avid fishers were younger and less likely to have a listed phone number, cumulative link models revealed that avidity was not affected by an interaction of phone listing status, age group and residential region ( p > 0.05). Likewise, binomial generalized linear models revealed that there was no interaction between phone listing, age group and avidity acting on platform ( p > 0.05), and platform was not affected by an interaction of phone listing status, age group, and residential region ( p > 0.05). Ordination of target species using Bray-Curtis dissimilarity indices found a significant but irrelevant difference (i.e. small effect size) between listed and unlisted fishers (ANOSIM R < 0.05, p < 0.05). These results suggest that, at this time, the fishing activity of listed and unlisted fishers in Queensland is similar within demographic groups. Future research seeking to validate the assumptions of recreational fishing telephone surveys should investigate fishing participation rates of listed and unlisted fishers within demographic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presented research focuses on the comparison of energy performance of a conventional versus a bioclimatic building, both continuously monitored. Attached buildings of offices located in Madrid, with main orientation N-S, have been built considering different constructive criteria. Principal Components Analysis has been used to check the representativeness criteria of the analysed offices. The Box and Whisker method concluded that the bioclimatic building has registered lower inter-quartile ranges for indoor temperatures than the convectional building. Thermal oscillations have been calculated for both buildings during winter and summer campaigns. The behaviour of the bioclimatic building is close to the summer thermal comfort band however during winter period values are slightly above because upper temperature limit has been exceeded. Thermal assessment of monitored offices has been done for representative days of summer and winter periods. The temperature variation of bioclimatic offices is more stable compared to conventional ones. Global primary energy consumption has been reduced from 124.58 kWh/m 2 year in conventional building up to 80.84 kWh/m 2 year in bioclimatic building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video summarization is one of the promising approaches for effective comprehension of video content by selecting informative frames of the video. The aim is to produce a summary of the video which is interesting to the user and representing the whole video. In this paper the proposed approach for video summarization takes various features into account such as representativeness, uniformity, static attention, temporal attention and quality which includes colorfulness, brightness, contrast, hue count, edge distribution for selecting keyframes. Experiments have been conducted on videos from open-video.org and results are compared with the standard ground truth. The results are also compared with the algorithm in literature and is found to produce better results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Natura 2000 (N2k) is a network of protected areas, established to implement the Birds and the Habitats Directives of the European Union (EU) with the goal of conservation irrespective of national boundaries. We provide the first assessment of the whole terrestrial N2k using spatial prioritizations, and high-resolution vertebrate species distribution data. First, we quantified species' representation in the network, and compared it against outcomes of hypothetical optimal planning scenarios at the EU, member state, and biogeographical levels. Second, we examined the spatial configuration of N2k sites and same-sized hypothetical top priority sites based on the three planning scenarios. We found that N2k covered all vertebrate directive species, and the coverage was significantly better than with a random allocation of sites. We observed substantial differences in representation between taxa, followed by the fact that N2k succeeded better in covering threatened and directive species than non-directive species. The current species representation in N2k was closer to optimal allocations done at member states' or biogeographical levels than the EU-wide allocation. Furthermore, the N2k sites overlapped more with the EU-wide allocation and they were more evenly distributed across the EU compared to sites in all hypothetical optimal allocations. Finally, we found that the biogeographical scenario covered well the ranges of habitats directive species, following the biogeographical approach taken by the EU in the Habitats Directive. Our results show that despite N2k being moderately successful, there is substantial effectiveness to be gained from member state collaboration via potential expansions or complementary conservation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The high spatio-temporal variability of soil moisture complicates the validation of remotely sensed soil moisture products using in situ monitoring stations. Therefore, a standard methodology for selecting the most representative stations for the purpose of validating satellites and land surface models is essential. Based on temporal stability and geostatistical studies using long-term soil moisture records, intensive ground measurements and airborne soil moisture products, this study investigates the representativeness of soil moisture monitoring stations within the Yanco study area for the validation of NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) products at 3 km for radar, 9 km for radar–radiometer and 36 km for radiometer pixels. This resulted in the identification of a number of representative stations according to the different scales. Although the temporal stability method was found to be suitable for identifying representative stations, stations based on the mean relative difference (MRD) were not necessarily the most representative of the areal average. Moreover, those identified from standard deviation of the relative difference (SDRD) may be dry-biased. It was also found that in the presence of heterogeneous land use, stations should be weighted based on proportions of agricultural land. Airborne soil moisture products were also shown to provide useful a priori information for identifying representative locations. Finally, recommendations are made regarding the design of future networks for satellite validation, and specifically the most representative stations for the Yanco area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 231 habitat types included in the European Environmental Agency (EEA) database of the Natura 2000 Network are distributed throughout more than 22 thousand Sites of Community Importance (SCI) covering around 128 million hectares in Europe. However, individual habitat areas have different conservation relevance according to the Rarity of the habitat type and their Representativeness in relation to the whole type. We propose a Relevance Index and evaluate it for each area of each habitat type, taking into account the Rarity of the habitat type, assessed by the extent of its occurrence in the Natura 2000 Network, and the Representativeness of the area, as the contribution of that area to the total extent of that habitat type in the Network. Results allow for an objective analysis of the Natura 2000 Network indicating, for example, that rarity of a habitat type in Natura 2000 Network does not necessarily correlate with its priority status, suggesting the need for reevaluation of the situation. The Relevance Index proposed for a given habitat area is the product of the Rarity Index of its habitat type and the Representativeness of the area. We demonstrate the application of the Index for the areas of three different Natura 2000 Sites. The Relevance Index of one Site (SRI) will be the sum of the Relevance Indices of its corresponding habitat areas (HRI). The same approach is applicable to regions, countries or for any habitat cluster allowing for the quantification of their contribution to the whole Natura 2000 Network. It is suggested that the Relevance index can also be applied in monitoring the components of the Natura 2000 Network, and is useful to support management decisions for conservation in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses discourse analysis to explore individuals’ use of two discourses in Scottish rural health community participation. It explores interview texts from a community participation project to design new services. Findings show that some community members employ discourses of rural localness and tradition to augment their credibility and gain influence. In particular, community members employ discourses that prioritise the voices of those perceived as local, and when discussing doctors and nurses, prioritise those who display idealised characteristics associated with local traditional provision. In examining these prominent discourses, the paper suggests that community participation involves more complex power-plays than simply those between health service managers and the public, that tend to be portrayed in health policy. Power-play between community members could affect processes and outcomes of community participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Representativeness and management effectiveness of China's pilot national parks was assessed. • Representativeness increased by >50 % on average than the existing protected areas. • Ten pilot national parks integrated 142 existing protected areas of seven categories. • The protected areas and the area under strict protection increased by 19.4% and 42.1%. • Relocation and enhanced land management in the pilot NPs reduced human disturbance. The continuous decline of global biodiversity highlights the need for the expansion and improved performance of protected areas (PAs) to achieve the Post-2020 Biodiversity Targets and 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. China proposed the establishment of a national park (NP) system and carried out transformative explorations in 10 pilot NPs, however, it is unclear to what extent the pilot NPs represent China's biodiversity and resolve management issues. To answer this question, we assessed the performance of the pilot NPs by analyzing the representativeness across typical ecosystems, biodiversity priority areas, and ecosystem services, and by analyzing the management effectiveness of reorganizing the existing PAs and improving the management intensity and man-land relationships. We found that China's pilot NPs achieved improved representativeness and management effectiveness through range expansion and optimization, institution streamlining, and cohesive management. Compared with the existing PAs, the area of protected typical ecosystems, biodiversity priority areas, and key areas of ecosystem services in the 10 pilot NPs increased by 59.6%, 59.6%, and 54.1% on average, respectively, with a similar land cost overall. The 10 pilot NPs integrated 142 existing PAs of seven categories. The protected areas expanded by 19.4%, and the area under strict protection increased by 42.1%. Additionally, the pilot NPs effectively reduced human disturbance and improved management effectiveness through necessary relocation and enhanced land management. Moving forward, the boundaries and zoning of the NPs should be further optimized, and efforts should be directed to strengthen the governing capacity building, improve the legislation system, increase the financing investment, and promote the value realization of ecological products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Periodic assessment of surveillance systems is recommended to verify whether they are appropriately monitoring the public health problem under surveillance. The aim of this study was to evaluate timeliness, data quality and representativeness of data reported to the Italian Integrated Epidemiological System for Acute Viral Hepatitis (SEIEVA). Study design: Cross-sectional analysis of surveillance data. Methods: Quantitative indicators were used to evaluate representativeness of reported cases, data quality, and timeliness between surveillance steps, for reports of acute viral hepatitis cases with date of onset of symptoms from 2009 to 2012 (N = 4516). Results: Representativeness was 75%. Over 95% of records reported information on age, sex, city of residence, risk factors for hepatitis A and vaccination status. Information on risk factors for hepatitis B and C were reported less consistently (83%), as was information on early outcome (60%). Wide delays were found between surveillance steps. Conclusions: The system collects high quality data on acute viral hepatitis cases in Italy. Timeliness was found to be the main limit and needs to be improved by optimizing web-based reporting procedures, increasing communication with participating centres, improving feedback and increasing dissemination of surveillance results. The study highlights the importance of reporting timeliness to detect outbreaks of acute viral hepatitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jules Horowitz Reactor (JHR) is the next Material-Testing Reactor (MTR) under construction at CEA Cadarache. High values of photon heating (up to 20 W/g) are expected in this MTR. As temperature is a key parameter for material behavior, the accuracy of photon-heating calculation in the different JHR structures is an important stake with regard to JHR safety and performances. In order to experimentally validate the calculation of photon heating in the JHR, an integral experiment called AMMON was carried out in the critical mock-up EOLE at CEA Cadarache to help ascertain the calculation bias and its associated uncertainty. Nuclear heating was measured in different JHR-representative AMMON core configurations using ThermoLuminescent Detectors (TLDs) and Optically Stimulated Luminescent Detectors (OSLDs). This article presents the interpretation methodology and the calculation/experiment ( C / E ) ratio for all the TLD and OSLD measurements conducted in AMMON. It then deals with representativeness elements of the AMMON experiment regarding the JHR and establishes the calculation biases (and its associated uncertainty) applicable to photon-heating calculation for the JHR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the amounts of data describing the site-scale carbon flux at a high temporal and spatial resolution collected in China and the number of eddy covariance flux towers have been increasing during the last decade. To correctly upscale these fluxes to the regional and global level, the representativeness of the current network of flux towers must be known. The present study quantifies the representativeness of the flux network for the regional carbon exchange. This analysis combined the total solar radiation, air temperature, vapor pressure and the enhanced vegetation index to indicate the environmental characteristics of each 1-km pixel cell and flux tower. Next, the Euclidean distance from each pixel to the tower was calculated to determine the representativeness of the existing flux towers. To improve the regional representativeness, additional tower locations were pinpointed by identifying and clustering the underrepresented areas. The existing network of flux towers performed well in representing the environmental conditions of the middle and the northeastern portions of China. The well-represented areas covered 60.9% of the total areas. The towers in croplands and grasslands represented the vegetation types well, but the wetlands and barelands were poorly represented. The representativeness of the flux network increased with the addition of nine towers located in forests, grasslands, wetlands and barelands. The representativeness of 27.5% of the land areas improved. In addition, the well-represented areas were enlarged by 15.2%. Substantial gains in representation were achieved by adding new towers on the Tibet Plateau. The representativeness of the northwest and southwest was improved less significantly, suggesting that more towers are required to capture certain ecosystem behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigation of the influence of digital material representation model parameters of a single phase polycrystalline unit cell on its behavior under loading conditions is the subject of the present paper. Firstly, investigation of the impact of the finite element mesh density on the quality of obtained results is conducted. However, the particular attention is put on the selection of the minimum amount of grains in the microstructure with periodic boundary conditions that can be considered as the representative volume element of a sample subjected to plastic deformation under plane strain. Finally, the influence of different friction coefficient values between tools and the sample, on deformation behavior of the unit cells is evaluated. Obtained data in the form of equivalent strain distributions and homogenized stress–strain curves for the analyzed case studies are presented and discussed within the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on methylamphetamine (M A) seizures made by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to investigate the use of chemical profiling in an intelligence perspective. Correlation coefficients were used to obtain a similarity degree between a population of linked samples and a population of unlinked samples. Although it was demonstrated that a general framework can be followed for the use of any forensic case data in an intelligence-led perspective, threshold values have to be re-evaluated for each type of illicit drug investigated. Unlike the results obtained in a previous study on 3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA) seizures, chemical profiles of M A samples coming from the same seizure showed relative inhomogeneity, limiting their ability to link seizures. Different hypotheses were investigated to obtain a better understanding of this inhomogeneity although no trend was observed. These findings raise an interesting discussion in regards to the homogeneity and representativeness of illicit drug seizures (for intelligence purposes). Further, it also provides some grounds to discuss the initial hypotheses and assumptions that most forensic science studies are based on. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] For the monitoring of urban air pollution, smart sensors are often seen as a welcome addition to fixed-site monitoring (FSM) networks. Due to price and simple installation, increases in spatial representation are thought to be achieved by large numbers of these sensors, however, a number of sensor errors have been identified. Based on a high-resolution modelling system, up to 400 pseudo smart sensors were perturbated with the aim of simulating common sensor errors and added to the existing FSM network in Hong Kong, resulting in 1200 pseudo networks for PM 2.5 and 1040 pseudo networks for NO 2. For each pseudo network, population-weighted area representativeness (PWAR) was calculated based on similarity frequency. For PM 2.5 , improvements (up to 16%) to the high baseline representativeness (PWAR = 0.74) were achievable only by the addition of high-quality sensors and favourable environmental conditions. The baseline FSM network represents NO 2 less well (PWAR = 0.52), as local emissions in the study domain resulted in high spatial pollution variation. Due to higher levels of pollution (population-weighted average 37.3 ppb) in comparison to sensor error ranges, smart sensors of a wider quality range were able to improve network representativeness (up to 42%). Marginal representativeness increases were found to exponentially decrease with existing sensor number. The quality and maintenance of added sensors had a stronger effect on overall network representativeness than the number of sensors added. Often, a small number of added sensors of a higher quality class led to larger improvements than hundreds of lower-class sensors. Whereas smart sensor performance and maintenance are important prerequisites particularly for developed cities where pollutant concentration is low and there is an existing FSM network, our study shows that for places with high pollutant variability and concentration such as encountered in some developing countries, smart sensors will provide benefits for understanding population exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]