What is 'GerES'? The German Environmental Survey (GerES) is a large scale population study which has repeatedly been carried out by the German Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) with financial support of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. The objectives are ・ to generate representative data on the concentration distribution of en...

Many small businesses require distributed information systems but do not have the resources to develop, host or maintain them. An alternative approach may be to offer the software as a distributed service. Students in the University of South Dakota (USD) Systems Analysis course partner with small businesses to design software services using a model-driven system development approach and the stu...

Designing assistive technological solutions for people with disabilities and older people is fraught with problems due to the number of agencies involved. These problems are compounded by the lack of understanding that can exist between the engineers and the health staff. This lack of understanding can develop into extreme delays in installing the technology and the needs of the person with dis...

Many avian species persist in human-dominated landscapes; however, little is known about the demographic consequences of urbanization in these populations. Given that urban habitats introduce novel benefits (e.g., anthropogenic resources) and pressures (e.g., mortality risks), conflicting mechanisms have been hypothesized to drive the dynamics of urban bird populations. Top-down processes such ...