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Visualization for constructing and sharing geo-scientific concepts.

ABSTRACT: Representations of scientific knowledge must reflect the dynamic nature of knowledge construction and the evolving networks of relations between scientific concepts. In this article, we describe initial work toward dynamic, visual methods and tools that support the construction, communication, revision, and application of scientific knowledge. Specifically, we focus on tools to capture and explore the concepts that underlie collaborative science activities, with examples drawn from the domain of human-environment interaction. These tools help individual researchers describe the process of knowledge construction while enabling teams of collaborators to synthesize common concepts. Our visualization approach links geographic visualization techniques with concept-mapping tools and allows the knowledge structures that result to be shared through a Web portal that helps scientists work collectively to advance their understanding. Our integration of geovisualization and knowledge representation methods emphasizes the process through which abstract concepts can be contextualized by the data, methods, people, and perspectives that produced them. This contextualization is a critical component of a knowledge structure, without which much of the meaning that guides the sharing of concepts is lost. By using the tools we describe here, human-environment scientists are given a visual means to build concepts from data (individually and collectively) and to connect these concepts to each other at appropriate levels of abstraction.

SUBMITTER: MacEachren AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC387308 | biostudies-other | 2004 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:The evaluation of a chemical substance's persistence is key to understanding its environmental fate, exposure concentration, and, ultimately, environmental risk. Traditional biodegradation test methods were developed many years ago for soluble, nonvolatile, single-constituent test substances, which do not represent the wide range of manufactured chemical substances. In addition, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) screening and simulation test methods do not fully reflect the environmental conditions into which substances are released and, therefore, estimates of chemical degradation half-lives can be very uncertain and may misrepresent real environmental processes. In this paper, we address the challenges and limitations facing current test methods and the scientific advances that are helping to both understand and provide solutions to them. Some of these advancements include the following: (1) robust methods that provide a deeper understanding of microbial composition, diversity, and abundance to ensure consistency and/or interpret variability between tests; (2) benchmarking tools and reference substances that aid in persistence evaluations through comparison against substances with well-quantified degradation profiles; (3) analytical methods that allow quantification for parent and metabolites at environmentally relevant concentrations, and inform on test substance bioavailability, biochemical pathways, rates of primary versus overall degradation, and rates of metabolite formation and decay; (4) modeling tools that predict the likelihood of microbial biotransformation, as well as biochemical pathways; and (5) modeling approaches that allow for derivation of more generally applicable biotransformation rate constants, by accounting for physical and/or chemical processes and test system design when evaluating test data. We also identify that, while such advancements could improve the certainty and accuracy of persistence assessments, the mechanisms and processes by which they are translated into regulatory practice and development of new OECD test guidelines need improving and accelerating. Where uncertainty remains, holistic weight of evidence approaches may be required to accurately assess the persistence of chemicals. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1454-1487. © 2022 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

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Visualization for constructing and sharing geo-scientific concepts.

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