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The impact of oil production on traditional livelihood: The case of Fanti people in Shama in the Western region of Ghana
No full textThis study examines the impact of oil and gas activities on the traditional livelihood of Shama, an Indigenous coastal town located 20 kilometers east of Takoradi where the majority of oil and gas development activities in Ghana take place. The study focused on the Fanti people in Shama who are predominantly fishers engaged in deep sea fishing where developers have built oil and gas installations. The main objective was to understand how the people of Shama pursued their livelihood prior to oil development and how their livelihood has been impacted since the emergence of the oil and gas industry. I focused on the Fanti peoples’ traditional fish-based livelihood and its interconnections with their spirituality, family and social interactions. The study used the mixed method design. I used interviews and survey instruments for data collection and analyzed through a concurrent nested approach, analyzing the survey using excel and the interviews through thematic analysis. The study sample consisted of 40 participants (27 men and 13 women). The result showed that the oil and gas industry has had a negative impact on traditional fishing in Shama. It has posed a great threat to their livelihood and affected their incomes, social interactions and spirituality. The study presents inland fishing as an alternative means of livelihood and the need for frequent meaningful engagement between those in the oil industry and the people of Shama.Master of Arts in Indigenous Governanc
Pick a Topic, Any Topic: Improvisational Comedy to Make Feminist Pedagogy Work for Library Instruction
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A Deep Learning Framework: Land-Use/Land-Cover Mapping and Analysis using Multispectral Satellite Imagery
Get PDFPreprint versionIn this article, we present an approach to land-use and land-cover (LULC) mapping from multispectral satellite images using deep learning methods. The terms satellite image classification and map production, although used interchangeably have specific meanings in the field of remote sensing. Satellite image classification describes assignment of global labels to entire scenes, whereas LULC map production involves producing maps by assigning a class to each pixel. We show that by classifying each pixel in a satellite image into a number of LULC categories we are able to successfully produce LULC maps. This process of LULC mapping is achieved using deep neural networks pre-trained on the ImageNet large-scale visual recognition competition datasets and fine-tuned on our target dataset, which consists of Landsat 5/7 multispectral satellite images taken of the Province of Manitoba in Canada. This approach resulted in 88% global accuracy. Performance was further improved by considering the state-of-the-art generative adversarial architecture and context module integrated with the original networks. The result is an automated deep learning framework that can produce highly accurate LULC maps images significantly faster than current semi-automated methods. The contribution of this article includes extensive experimentation of different FCN architectures with extensions on a unique dataset, high classification accuracy of 90.46%, and a thorough analysis and accuracy assessment of our results."This research has been supported by through a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee scholarship and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) discovery Grants 194376 and 418413. Moreover, this work would not have been possible without the support and cooperation of GeoManitoba."https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00521-019-04349-
Descriptive Topological Spaces for Performing Visual Search
Get PDFAccepted versionThis article presents an approach to performing the task of visual search in the context of descriptive topological spaces. The presented algorithm forms the basis of a descriptive visual search system (DVSS) that is based on the guided search model (GSM) that is motivated by human visual search. This model, in turn, consists of the bottom-up and top-down attention models and is implemented within the DVSS in three distinct stages. First, the bottom-up activation process is used to generate saliency maps and to identify salient objects. Second, perceptual objects, defined in the context of descriptive topological spaces, are identified and associated with feature vectors obtained from a VGG deep learning convolutional neural network. Lastly, the top-down activation process makes decisions on whether the object of interest is present in a given image through the use of descriptive patterns within the context of a descriptive topological space. The presented approach is tested with images from the ImageNet ILSVRC2012 and SIMPLIcity datasets. The contribution of this article is a descriptive pattern-based visual search algorithm."This research has been supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant 418413, and the Faculty of Graduate
Studies at the University of Winnipeg."https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-58768-3_
A fast MOSFET rf switch for low-field NMR and MRI
Get PDFThis open-access version originally appeared in the HAL Archives (https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr), ID: hal-02266979.TRansmit Array Spatial Encoding (TRASE) MRI uses trains of rf pulses alternately produced by distinct
transmit coils. Commonly used coil switching involving PIN diodes is too slow for low- and ultra-lowfield
MRI and would introduce wait times between pulses typically as long as each individual pulse in
a few mT. A MOSFET-based rf switch is described and characterised. Up to hundreds of kHz, it allows
for sub-ls switching of rf currents from a single amplifier to several coils with sufficient isolation ratio
and negligible delay between pulses. Additionally, current switching at null current and maximum voltage
can be used to abruptly stop or start pulses in series-tuned rf coils, therefore avoiding the rise and fall
times associated with the Q-factors. RF energy can be efficiently stored in tuning capacitors for times as
long as several seconds. Besides TRASE MRI, this energy storage approach may find applications in fast repeated spin-echo experiments. Here, a threefold acceleration of TRASE phase-encoding is demonstrated when MOSFET switches are used instead of fast reed relays."Support from the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and the École normale supérieure (ENS) for joint work is gratefully acknowledged."https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02266979Preprin
Avelines's Hole: An Unexpected Twist in the Tale
Get PDFAveline’s Hole is the largest known Early Mesolithic cemetery in Britain, previously thought to have no evidence for subsequent burial activity. Thus, it came as some surprise when the results of a recent ancient human DNA study found that, of four individuals from the site yielding genomic data, two showed high levels of ancestry from Early Neolithic Aegean farmers. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that these two individuals were indeed British Early Neolithic in date, while the other two had the expected ‘Western Hunter-Gatherer’ ancestry genomic signatures, with the two groups separated in time by nearly five millennia. Moreover, the two Neolithic samples were both crania, while the two Mesolithic samples were long bones. Given the absence of Neolithic dates in the previous sizeable dating programme combined with the difficult history of the collection, i.e., the WWII bombing of its Bristol repository, this raised the question of whether the crania might in fact be from another site. As we show in this paper, a very strong case can be made that the crania do in fact originate from Aveline’s Hole. Additional radiocarbon dating (14 in total, including the above mentioned four) suggests that about half the cranial elements from the site fall within the Early Neolithic, though there is still no evidence for the deposition of post-cranial remains at this time, nor is there any burial evidence in the long intervening period between the Early Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic. Intriguingly, craniometric analyses of legacy data including three crania lost in the bombing suggest that one, Aveline’s Hole ‘A’, may be Upper Palaeolithicin date. As part of this re-investigation of the human remains from the site, we present new stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses that differ significantly from those originally reported for the Early Mesolithic, with the new results more in keeping with other isotopic data for this period. We also present new stable carbon and nitrogen isotope results on human remains from the nearby Early Mesolithic sites of Badger Hole and Greylake, and report new Early Mesolithic radiocarbon dates and isotopic data from Cannington Park Quarry. Clear isotopic differences between the Early Mesolithic and the Neolithic remains can be seen, but these are argued to relate primarily to shifts in the underlying ecological baselines, rather than to differences in types of foods consumed (with the caveat that terrestrial wild and domesticated foods will be isotopically similar). The genetic data are summarised, giving evidence not only of the ancestry of Mesolithic and Neolithic individuals from Aveline’s Hole, but also suggesting something of their physical appearance. The degree of population replacement now indicated by ancient DNA suggests that there was a substantial migration of farmers into Britain at the start of the Neolithic. This new information demonstrates the archaeological importance of Aveline's Hole for both the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods."Funding for nine of the new radiocarbon dates from Aveline’s Hole reported here was
provided by NERC’s NRCF programme (NF/2016/2/16). The ancient DNA study was funded
by the Wellcome Trust (100713/Z/12/Z), as were three new radiocarbon dates from Aveline’s
Hole. The isotopic analysis of the Badger Hole human remains was funded as part of a NERC studentship (NE/K500987/1)."https://www.ubss.org.uk/resources/proceedings/vol28/UBSS_Proc_28_1_9-63.pd
The Narrative Turn, Corporate Storytelling, and Oral History: Canada's Petroleum Oral History Project and Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action No. 92
Get PDFPostprint version.As business historians embrace the narrative turn, they would do well to consider the opportunities provided by oral history. For-profit corporate
storytellers offer one approach. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada’s call to action no. 92, however, offers a better one. This article explores the potential impact on business historians of the TRC, using the Petroleum Industry Oral History Project as an example.https://muse.jhu.edu/article/71662
Degree of Phosphorus Saturation as a Predictor of Redox-Induced Phosphorus Release from Flooded Soils to Floodwater
Get PDFPhosphorus (P) loss from soils is often enhanced under flooded, anaerobic conditions, increasing the risk of freshwater eutrophication. We aimed to develop a predictive tool to identify soils with greater P release potential under summer‐flooded conditions, which would help in developing strategies to mitigate P losses. One in situ mesocosm study was conducted in field plots with three treatments: cattle manure amended, monoammonium phosphate amended, and unamended. Two ex situ field mesocosm studies were conducted, each having 12 surface soils from agricultural fields. Prior to flooding, soils were analyzed for various soil test P (STP, intensity) and P sorption measures (capacity), and degree of P saturation (DPS) indices were calculated using different intensity and capacity combinations. Mesocosms were flooded and redox potential, pore water, and floodwater dissolved reactive P (DRP) concentrations were determined periodically up to 42 (in situ) and 56 d (ex situ) after the onset of flooding. Floodwater DRP increased significantly in most soils with flooding time, and the maximum DRP (DRPmax) was considered as the flooding‐induced P release risk. Relationships between floodwater DRPmax and STP or DPS indices were established separately for low‐P (Olsen P ≤ 30 mg kg−1) and high‐P (>30 mg kg−1) soils. Several STP indices effectively predicted the P release risk from high‐P soils, but not from low‐P soils. However, DPS calculated using Olsen P (intensity) and P sorption capacity or P saturation index (capacity) performed better in predicting summer flooding‐induced P release across all soil categories, with a higher predictive power."This work was supported by the Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship Fund, Environment Canada through the Lake Winnipeg Basin Stewardship Fund (EC no. 1300328), and a University of Winnipeg major grant. We also acknowledge the Manitoba Graduate Scholarship program and the University of Winnipeg Graduate Assistantship Program."https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2134/jeq2019.04.015
