It is well established that nighttime radiance, measured from satellites, correlates with economic prosperity across the globe. In developing countries, areas with low levels of detected radiance ...generally indicate limited development - with unlit areas typically being disregarded. Here we combine satellite nighttime lights and the world settlement footprint for the year 2015 to show that 19% of the total settlement footprint of the planet had no detectable artificial radiance associated with it. The majority of unlit settlement footprints are found in Africa (39%), rising to 65% if we consider only rural settlement areas, along with numerous countries in the Middle East and Asia. Significant areas of unlit settlements are also located in some developed countries. For 49 countries spread across Africa, Asia and the Americas we are able to predict and map the wealth class obtained from ~2,400,000 geo-located households based upon the percent of unlit settlements, with an overall accuracy of 87%.
The participation of citizens in scientific research has a long tradition, and in some disciplines, especially medical research, it is even common practice. In Technology Assessment (TA), Responsible ...Research and Innovation (RRI), and Sustainable Development (SD), the participation of citizens can be of considerable value. In this paper, we explore this value for three concepts, based on the researcher’s insights from three participatory research projects. The first project is the citizen science project TeQfor1, which was conducted with, for, and on the type 1 diabetes community, who do not feel adequately supported by the conventional health care system. In the second project, citizens with vision impairments participated in the technological development of an audio-tactile navigation tool in the TERRAIN project. The third project (Nachtlichter) dealt with light pollution. Based on the three projects presented, we show that citizen participation makes specific contributions to TA, RRI, and SD. We also investigate the specificity of citizen engagement and motivation by differentiating between existing and emerging involvement. In conclusion, we discuss the benefits that may be added by participatory approaches for the three concepts of TA, RRI, and SD.
Artificial light at night significantly alters the predictability of the natural light cycles that most animals use as an essential Zeitgeber for daily activity. Direct light has well-documented ...local impacts on activity patterns of diurnal and nocturnal organisms. However, artificial light at night also contributes to an indirect illumination of the night sky, called skyglow, which is rapidly increasing. The consequences of this wide-spread form of artificial night light on the behaviour of animals remain poorly understood, with only a few studies performed under controlled (laboratory) conditions. Using animal-borne activity loggers, we investigated daily and seasonal flight activity of a free-living crepuscular bird species in response to nocturnal light conditions at sites differing dramatically in exposure to skyglow. We find that flight activity of European Nightjars (Caprimulgus europaeus) during moonless periods of the night is four times higher in Belgium (high skyglow exposure) than in sub-tropical Africa and two times higher than in Mongolia (near-pristine skies). Moreover, clouds darken the sky under natural conditions, but skyglow can strongly increase local sky brightness on overcast nights. As a result, we find that nightjars' response to cloud cover is reversed between Belgium and sub-tropical Africa and between Belgium and Mongolia. This supports the hypothesis that cloudy nights reduce individual flight activity in a pristine environment, but increase it when the sky is artificially lit. Our study shows that in the absence of direct light pollution, anthropogenic changes in sky brightness relieve nightjars from visual constraints on being active. Individuals adapt daily activities to artificial night-sky brightness, allowing them more time to fly than conspecifics living under natural light cycles. This modification of the nocturnal timescape likely affects behavioural processes of most crepuscular and nocturnal species, but its implications for population dynamics and interspecific interactions remain to be investigated.
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•Nocturnal flight activity of a crepuscular bird species is affected by skyglow.•Increased natural and artificial sky brightness promote nocturnal flight activity.•Improved visibility by artificial skyglow allows individuals more available time than in natural environments.
This article details a correction to the article: Eitzel, M V, et al. (2017). Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 2(1), p. 1. DOI: ...https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.96
Much can be at stake depending on the choice of words used to describe citizen science, because terminology impacts how knowledge is developed. Citizen science is a quickly evolving field that is ...mobilizing people's involvement in information development, social action and justice, and large-scale information gathering. Currently, a wide variety of terms and expressions are being used to refer to the concept of 'citizen science' and its practitioners. Here, we explore these terms to help provide guidance for the future growth of this field. We do this by reviewing the theoretical, historical, geopolitical, and disciplinary context of citizen science terminology; discussing what citizen science is and reviewing related terms; and providing a collection of potential terms and definitions for 'citizen science' and people participating in citizen science projects. This collection of terms was generated primarily from the broad knowledge base and on-the-ground experience of the authors, by recognizing the potential issues associated with various terms. While our examples may not be systematic or exhaustive, they are intended to be suggestive and invitational of future consideration. In our collective experience with citizen science projects, no single term is appropriate for all contexts. In a given citizen science project, we suggest that terms should be chosen carefully and their usage explained; direct communication with participants about how terminology affects them and what they would prefer to be called also should occur. We further recommend that a more systematic study of terminology trends in citizen science be conducted.
This work presents a measurement of the neutrino induced through-going muon flux in a 337.25 day exposure at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. Due to the 6km w.e. depth and the flat overburden of the ...SNO detector, cosmic muons range out at a zenith angle near z = 66°. A total of 149 neutrino induced through-going muon candidate events were observed in the range −1 < cos z < 0.4, corresponding to a muon flux of 2.54 ± 0.21(stat) ± 0.08(syst) × 10−13,μ/(cm2 s sr). A maximum likelihood parameter estimation is used to extract the best fit neutrino flux and two-flavor neutrino oscillation parameter Δm 2. The data are found to be most consistent with a flux of 1.2 times that predicted by the Bartol group, with Δm2 ≈ 3 x× 10−3eV2. Due to the limited statistics of this data set it is not possible to rule out the no-oscillation hypothesis. The depth to vertical intensity relationship for cosmic muons at the SNO site is studied, and is found to be consistent with the results of past experiments. The expected seasonal variation of the cosmic muon flux is observed over a period of almost four years. A sinu soidal fit to this annual variation is found to have an amplitude of 2.4 ± 0.6%. A study of neutron events that occur within 200ms after the passage of muons through the SNO D 2O is performed in two phases of the SNO experiment. It is found that for muons with energy loss below 400MeV/m the production of neutrons increases linearly with muon radiative energy loss.
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