From the web of data to a world of action

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Web Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Web Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web 8.4 (2010): 10.1016/j.websem.2010.04.007This paper takes as its premise that the web is a place of action, not just information, and that the purpose of global data is to serve human needs. The paper presents several component technologies, which together work towards a vision where many small micro-applications can be threaded together using automated assistance to enable a unified and rich interaction. These technologies include data detector technology to enable any text to become a start point of semantic interaction; annotations for web-based services so that they can link data to potential actions; spreading activation over personal ontologies, to allow modelling of context; algorithms for automatically inferring 'typing' of web-form input data based on previous user inputs; and early work on inferring task structures from action traces. Some of these have already been integrated within an experimental web-based (extended) bookmarking tool, Snip!t, and a prototype desktop application On Time, and the paper discusses how the components could be more fully, yet more openly, linked in terms of both architecture and interaction. As well as contributing to the goal of an action and activity-focused web, the work also exposes a number of broader issues, theoretical, practical, social and economic, for the Semantic Web.Parts of this work were supported by the Information Society Technologies (IST) Program of the European Commission as part of the DELOS Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries (Contract G038- 507618). Thanks also to Emanuele Tracanna, Marco Piva, and Raffaele Giuliano for their work on On Time

SatNOGS-COMMS: Turnkey Nanosatellite Communications

The SatNOGS-COMMS is a dual-band software configurable radio transceiver specifically designed for Telemetry and Telecommand (TMTC) in the UHF and S-band. It is designed to match best with nanosatellites and CubeSats missions operating in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) up to 800 km. The radio module supports full in-flight reconfiguration of the carrier and intermediate frequencies, bitrate, modulation options, and channel-filter bandwidth. SatNOGS-COMMS is fully compatible with SatNOGS Network for all TMTC functionality. The software and hardware are released as open source projects, which can be tailored to user needs

An Updated Overview of the Satellite Networked Open Ground Stations (SatNOGS) Project

An overview of the SatNOGS project, a network of satellite ground stations around the world, optimized for modularity, built from readily available and affordable tools and resources. The rate of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite launches increases with the participation of old and new entities. In this growing environment, SatNOGS provides a scalable and modular solution to track, identify, receive telemetry from, monitor, and assist operators in command/control of satellites. The SatNOGS global community, dedicated to its free and open-source values, develops hardware ground station designs (antennas, rotators, electronics), software for SDR-based communications, satellite scheduling and mission monitoring platforms. SatNOGS continuously develops and improves its infrastructure to allow observers to use this networked ground segment and remotely operate SatNOGS ground stations around the world. It also provides an easy way to store, access and view increasingly received satellites data, by supporting VHF, UHF, L and S bands

An Overview of Conventional and Emerging Analytical Methods for the Determination of Mycotoxins

Mycotoxins are a group of compounds produced by various fungi and excreted into the matrices on which they grow, often food intended for human consumption or animal feed. The high toxicity and carcinogenicity of these compounds and their ability to cause various pathological conditions has led to widespread screening of foods and feeds potentially polluted with them. Maximum permissible levels in different matrices have also been established for some toxins. As these are quite low, analytical methods for determination of mycotoxins have to be both sensitive and specific. In addition, an appropriate sample preparation and pre-concentration method is needed to isolate analytes from rather complicated samples. In this article, an overview of methods for analysis and sample preparation published in the last ten years is given for the most often encountered mycotoxins in different samples, mainly in food. Special emphasis is on liquid chromatography with fluorescence and mass spectrometric detection, while in the field of sample preparation various solid-phase extraction approaches are discussed. However, an overview of other analytical and sample preparation methods less often used is also given. Finally, different matrices where mycotoxins have to be determined are discussed with the emphasis on their specific characteristics important for the analysis (human food and beverages, animal feed, biological samples, environmental samples). Various issues important for accurate qualitative and quantitative analyses are critically discussed: sampling and choice of representative sample, sample preparation and possible bias associated with it, specificity of the analytical method and critical evaluation of results

Evaluation and validation of two fluorometric HPLC methods for the determination of aflatoxin B1 in olive oil

Two methods for the determination of aflatoxin B1(AFB1) in olive oil were tested and compared. In method A the oil sample was mixed with methanol + water (60 + 40), extracted with hexane and then with chloroform. Chloroform was evaporated and the residue was dissolved with dichloromethane which was then transferred for clean-up onto a silica ‘Sep-Pak’ cartridge. The cartridge was pre-washed with hexane, ethyl ether and dichloromethane. AFB1 was eluted with chloroform + acetone (9 + 1) and evaporated to dryness. In method B, the oil sample was mixed with methanol + water (80 + 20), shaken and centrifuged. The supernatant was diluted 1:10 with water and 10ml of the diluted mixture transferred to an ‘Aflaprep’ immunoaffinity column for the clean-up step. AFB1 was eluted with acetonitrile and evaporated to dryness. AFB1 from both methods was derivatized to its hemiacetal (AFB2a) and then quantitated by HPLC using a C18 (60 A 4.6 x 250 mm) column with fluorescence detection. Both methods are simple, reliable and efficient, but method A showed a lower detection limit (2.8 ng/kg) than method B (56 ng/kg). With a 95% confidence level there was no significant difference in recovery between the two methods, which was 87.2% for method A and 84.8% for method B. In addition, application of a two-tailed F-test to the variances within spiked samples at concentrations 1, 2, 5 and 10 µg/kg separately showed that there was no significant difference in the precisions of the two methods. Fifty samples of olive oil of Greek origin produced between 1995 and 1998 were examined with both methods for the presence of AFB1. When analysing the samples with method B, the presence of AFB1 was not detected. The use of method A revealed the presence of AFB1 in 72% of the samples. The range of contamination was generally found to be very low (2.8–15.7 ng/kg), however one sample was contaminated with 46.3 ng/kg. © 2000 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Projektierung einer Kohlevergasungsanlage unter Anwendung der zirkulierenden atmosphaerischen Wirbelschicht Schlussbericht

With 9 refs., 4 tabs., 7 figs.SIGLECopy held by FIZ Karlsruhe; available from UB/TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman