ri

Fostering the Future

We’re proud to announce the 2019 recipients of BCI’s Student Research Scholarship for Global Bat Conservation Priorities.             




ri

Communities Encouraged to Take Action to Help Bats Across the Globe During Bat Week

Washington, DC (October 16, 2019) – A coalition of partners across North America announced the launch of Bat Week, an international celebration of




ri

Protecting America’s Rarest Bat with Opening of the FPL Bat Lab at Zoo Miami

Miami, Fla. – (Oct. 24, 2019) – The FPL Bat Lab at Zoo Miami officially opened today focused on providing solutions to protect the federally




ri

Research Links Bats to Growth of Durian, the “World’s Stinkiest Fruit”




ri

Atmospheric Science for Environmental Scientists, 2nd Edition


 

Enlightens readers on the realities of global atmospheric change, including global warming and poor air quality

Climate change and air pollution are two of the most pressing issues facing Mankind. This book gives undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and professionals working in the science and policy of pollution, climate change and air quality a broad and up-to-date account of the processes that occur in the atmosphere, how these are changing



Read More...




ri

Rivers in the Landscape, 2nd Edition


 

Rivers are the great shapers of terrestrial landscapes. Very few points on Earth above sea level do not lie within a drainage basin. Even points distant from the nearest channel are likely to be influenced by that channel. Tectonic uplift raises rock thousands of meters above sea level. Precipitation falling on the uplifted terrain concentrates into channels that carry sediment downward to the oceans and influence the steepness of adjacent hill slopes



Read More...




ri

Industrial Environmental Management: Engineering, Science, and Policy


 

Provides aspiring engineers with pertinent information and technological methodologies on how best to manage industry's modern-day environment concerns

This book explains why industrial environmental management is important to human environmental interactions and describes what the physical, economic, social, and technological constraints to achieving the goal of a sustainable environment are. It emphasizes recent progress in life-cycle sustainable



Read More...




ri

Introducing Large Rivers


 

An accessible introduction to large rivers, including coverage of the geomorphology, hydrology, ecology, and environments of large river systems

This indispensible book takes a structured and global approach to the subject of large rivers, covering geomorphology, hydrology, ecology, and anthropogenic environment. It offers a thorough foundation for readers who are new to the field and presents enlightening discussions about issues of management at



Read More...




ri

Biogeochemical Cycles: Ecological Drivers and Environmental Impact


 

Biogeochemical Cycles: Ecological Drivers and Environmental Impact is a collection of the latest information on the techniques and methods currently used in this field, focusing on biological and/or ecological effects of biogeochemical elemental cycles including carbon, nitrogen, major and trace elements, chemical weathering on multiple scales of nanometers to watersheds, and advances in technology of studying these processes.

Volume highlights include



Read More...




ri

Exploring the Solar System, 2nd Edition


 

An Exciting and Authoritative Account of the Second Golden Age of Solar System Exploration Award-winning author Peter Bond provides an up-to-date, in-depth account of the sun and its family in the 2nd edition of Exploring the Solar System. This new edition brings together the discoveries and advances in scientific understanding made during the last 60 years of solar and planetary exploration, using research conducted by the world's leading geoscientists



Read More...




ri

Political Geography: A Critical Introduction


 

Brings political geography to life—explores key concepts, critical debates, and contemporary research in the field. 

Political geography is the study of how power struggles both shape and are shaped by the places in which they occur—the spatial nature of political power. PoliticalGeography: A Critical Introduction helps students understand how power is related to space, place, and territory, illustrating how everyday life and the world of global conflict



Read More...




ri

The Mediterranean Sea in the Era of Global Change 2: 30 Years of Multidisciplinary Study of the Ligurian Sea


 

Due to its particular characteristics, the Mediterranean Sea is often viewed as a microcosm of the World Ocean. Its proportionally-reduced dimensions and peculiar hydrological circulation render it susceptible to environmental and climatic constraints, which are rapidly evolving. The Mediterranean is therefore an ideal site to examine, in order to better understand a number of key oceanographic phenomena. This is especially true of the Ligurian Sea



Read More...




ri

The Mediterranean Sea in the Era of Global Change 1: 30 Years of Multidisciplinary Study of the Ligurian Sea


 

Due to its particular characteristics, the Mediterranean Sea is often viewed as a microcosm of the World Ocean. Its proportionally-reduced dimensions and peculiar hydrological circulation render it susceptible to environmental and climatic constraints, which are rapidly evolving. The Mediterranean is therefore an ideal site to examine, in order to better understand a number of key oceanographic phenomena. This is especially true of the Ligurian Sea



Read More...




ri

Bringing SSL To Your Private Network

In this entry I will describe and provide how to run a HTTPS server in your home network, in order to test new HTML5 APIs.




ri

Exporting modules in JavaScript

In my latest entry I explain the difference about exporting a module between server side or CLI environments such Nashorn, SpiderMonkey, JSC, or micro controller and embedded engines such Duktape, Espruino, KinomaJS, and Desktop UI space via GJS.
Using this is a universal way to attach and export properties but when it comes to ES2015 modules, incompatible with CommonJS and with an undefined execution context.
Enjoy




ri

The missing analysis in JavaScript "Real" Mixins

I love hacks and unusual patterns! As logical consequence, I loved this post about "Real" Mixins!!!
The only hitch about that post is that I believe there are few points closer to a "gonna sell you my idea" discussion than a non disillusioned one.
Let's start this counter analysis remembering what are actually classes in latest JavaScript standard, so that we can move on explaining what's missing in there.

JavaScript embraces prototypal inheritance

It doesn't matter if ES6 made the previously reserved class keyword usable; at the end of the day we're dealing with a special syntactical shortcut to enrich a generic prototype object.

// class in ES2015
class A {
constructor() {}
method() {}
get accessor() {}
set accessor(value) {}
}

// where are those methods and properties defined?
console.log(
Object.getOwnPropertyNames(A.prototype)
// ["constructor", "method", "accessor"]
);
Accordingly, declaring a generic class consists in bypassing the following procedure:

function A() {}
Object.defineProperties(
A.prototype,
{
// constructor is implicitly defined
method: {
configurable: true,
writable: true,
value: function method() {}
},
accessor: {
configurable: true,
get: function get() {},
set: function set(value) {}
}
}
);
If you don't trust me, trust what a transpiler would do, summarized in the following code:

var A = (function () {
// the constructor
function A() {
_classCallCheck(this, _temporalAssertDefined(A, "A", _temporalUndefined) && A);
}
// the enriched prototype
_createClass(_temporalAssertDefined(A, "A", _temporalUndefined) && A, [{
key: "method",
value: function method() {}
}, {
key: "accessor",
get: function get() {},
set: function set(value) {}
}]);

return _temporalAssertDefined(A, "A", _temporalUndefined) && A;
})();
If there is some public static property in the definition, its assignment to the constructor would be the second bypassed part.

The super case

The extra bit in terms of syntax that makes ES6 special is the special keyword super. Being multiple inheritance not possible in JavaScript, we could think about super as the static reference to the directly extended prototype. In case of the previous B class, which extends A, we can think about super variable like if it was defined as such:

// used within the constructor
let super = (...args) => A.apply(this, arguments);

// used within any other method
super.method = (...args) => A.prototype.method.apply(this, args);

// used as accessor
Object.defineProperty(super, 'accessor', {
get: () => Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(
A.prototype, 'accessor'
).get.call(this),
set: (value) => Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(
A.prototype, 'accessor'
).set.call(this, value)
});
Now that we have a decent understanding on how inheritance works in JavaScript and what it means to declare a class, let's talk about few misleading points sold as pros or cons in the mentioned article.

Prototypes are always modified anyway!

We've just seen that defining a class technically means enriching its prototype object. This already invalidates somehow Justin point but there's more to consider.
When Justin exposes his idea on why current solutions are bad, he says that:
When using mixin libraries against prototype objects, the prototypes are directly mutated. This is a problem if the prototype is used anywhere else that the mixed-in properties are not wanted.
The way Justin describes this issue is quite misleading because mutating prototypes at runtime is a well known bad practice.
Indeed, I believe every single library he mentioned in that post, and he also forgot mine, is not designed to mutate classes prototypes at runtime ... like: not at all!
Every single mixin proposal that is capable of implementing mixins via classes is indeed designed to define these classes at definition time, not at runtime!
Moreover, whatever solution Justin proposed will not guard any class from being modified at runtime later on!
The same way he's defining his final classes during their definitions, mixins-for-classes oriented libraries have exactly the same goal: you define your class and its mixins during the class definition time!
The fact mixins add properties to a prototype is a completely hidden matter that at class definition time is everything but bad.
Also, no property is modified in place, because mixins are there to enrich, not to modify ... and having a prototype enriched means also that it's easier to spot name clashing and methods or properties conflicts ... but I'll come back to that later ...

super actually should NOT work!

The main bummer about the article is that it starts in a very reasonable way, describing mixins and classes, and also analyzing their role in a program.
The real, and only, difference between a mixin and normal subclass is that a normal subclass has a fixed superclass, while a mixin definition doesn't yet have a superclass.
Justin started right at the very beginning, and then degenerated with all sort of contradictions such:
Then finally he's back to Sanity Village with the following sentence:
super calls can be a little unintuitive for those new to mixins because the superclass isn't known at mixin definition, and sometimes developers expect super to point to the declared superclass (the parameter to the mixin), not the mixin application.
And on top of that, Justin talks about constructors too:
Constructors are a potential source of confusion with mixins. They essentially behave like methods, except that overriden methods tend to have the same signature, while constructors in a inheritance hierarchy often have different signatures.
In case you're not convinced yet how much messed up could be the situation, I'd like to add extra examples to the plate.
Let's consider the word area and its multiple meanings:
  • any particular extent of space or surface
  • a geographical region
  • any section reserved for a specific function
  • extent, range, or scope
  • field of study, or a branch of a field of study
  • a piece of unoccupied ground; an open space
  • the space or site on which a building stands
Now you really have to tell me in case you implement a basic Shape mixin with an area() method what the hack would you expect when invoking super. Moreoever, you should tell me if for every single method you are going to write within a mixin, you are also going to blindly invoke super with arbitrary amount of arguments in there ...

So here my quick advice about calling blindly a super: NO, followed by DON'T and eventually NEVER!

Oversold super ability

No kidding, and I can't stress this enough ... I've never ever in my life wrote a single mixin that was blindly trusting on a super call. That would be eventually an application based on mixins but that's a completely different story.
My feeling is that Justin tried to combine at all cost different concepts, probably mislead by his Dart background, since mentioned as reference, where composition in Dart was indeed classes based and the lang itself exposes native mixins as classes ... but here again we are in JavaScript!

instanceof what?

Another oversold point in Justin's article is that instanceof works.
This one was easy to spot ... I mean, if you create a class at runtime everytime the mixin is invoked, what exactly are you capable of "instanceoffing" and why would that benefit anyone about anything?
I'm writing down his very same examples here that will obviously all fail:

// a new anonymous class is created each time
// who's gonna benefit about the instanceof?
let MyMixin = (superclass) => class extends superclass {
foo() {
console.log('foo from MyMixin');
}
};

// let's try this class
class MyClass extends MyMixin(MyBaseClass) {
/* ... */
}

// Justin says it's cool that instanceof works ...
(new MyClass) instanceof MyMixin; // false
// false ... really, it can't be an instance of
// an arrow function prototype, isn't it?!
Accordingly, and unless I've misunderstood Justin point in which case I apologies in advance, I'm not sure what's the exact point in having instanceof working. Yes, sure the intermediate class is there, but every time the mixin is used it will create a different class so there's absolutely no advantage in having instanceof working there ... am I right?

Improving **Objects** Composition

In his Improving the Syntax paragraph, Justin exposes a very nice API summarized as such:

let mix = (superclass) => new MixinBuilder(superclass);

class MixinBuilder {
constructor(superclass) {
this.superclass = superclass;
}

with(...mixins) {
return mixins.reduce((c, mixin) => mixin(c), this.superclass);
}
}
Well, this was actually the part I've liked the most about his article, it's a very simple and semantic API, and it also doesn't need classes at all to be implemented for any kind of JS object!
How? Well, simply creating objects from objects instead:

let mix = (object) => ({
with: (...mixins) => mixins.reduce(
(c, mixin) => Object.create(
c, Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptors(mixin)
), object)
});
It could surely be improved in order to deal with classes too but you get the idea:

let a = {a: 'a'};
let b = {b: 'b'};
let c = {c: 'c'};
let d = mix(c).with(a, b);
console.log(d);
Since the main trick in Justin proposal is to place an intermediate class in the inheritance chain, defining at runtime each time the same class and its prototype, I've done something different here that doesn't need to create a new class with its own prototype or object each time, while preserving original functionalities without affecting them.

Less RAM to use, a hopefully coming soon native Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptors that should land in ES7 and make extraction faster, and the ability to use the pattern with pretty much everything out there, modern or old.
The gist is here, feel free to reuse.

As Summary ...

Wrapping up this post, with latter proposal we can actually achieve whatever Justin did with his intermediate classes approach but following different goals:
  1. Mixins are added to the prototype chain.
  2. Mixins are applied without modifying existing objects.
  3. Mixins do no magic, and don't define new semantics on top of the core language.
  4. super.foo property access won't hopefully work within mixins but it will with subclasses methods.
  5. super() calls won't hopefully work in mixins constructors because you've no idea what kind of arguments you are going to receive. Subclasses still work as expected.
  6. Mixins are able to extend other mixins.
  7. instanceof has no reason to be even considered in this scenario since we are composing objects.
  8. Mixin definitions do not require library support - they can be written in a universal style and be compatible with non classes based engines too.
  9. bonus: less memory consumption overall, there's no runtime duplication for the same logic each time
I still want to thanks Justin because he made it quite clear that still not everyone fully understands mixins but there's surely a real-world need, or better demand, in the current JavaScript community.

Let's hope the next version of ECMAScript will let all of us compose in a standard way that doesn't include a footgun like super through intermediate classes definition could do.
Thanks for your patience reading through this!




ri

JavaScript Interfaces

In this Implementing Interfaces in JavaScript blog entry I'll show a new way to enrich prototypal inheritance layering functionalities a part, without modifying prototypes at all. A different, alternative, and in some case even better, approach to mixins.




ri

Surviving the Essex: the afterlife of America's most storied shipwreck / David O. Dowling

Hayden Library - G530.E77 D68 2016




ri

Wildlife tourism, environmental learning and ethical encounters: ecological and conservation aspects / edited by Ismar Borges de Lima, Ronda J. Green

Online Resource




ri

Frederick de Wit and the first concise reference atlas / George Carhart

Hayden Library - GA923.6.W57 C37 2016




ri

Springer handbook of global navigation satellite systems / Peter J.G. Teunissen, Oliver Montenbruck (Eds.)

Online Resource




ri

GIS and environmental monitoring: applications in the marine, atmospheric and geomagnetic fields / Stavros Kolios, Andrei V. Vorobev, Gulnara R. Vorobeva, Chrysostomos Stylios

Online Resource




ri

Voyager: travel writings / Russell Banks

Hayden Library - G465.B369 2016




ri

The ArcGIS book: 10 big ideas about applying geography to your world / Christian Harder, editor

Rotch Library - G70.212.A7352 2015




ri

Geographical information systems theory, applications and management: second International Conference, GISTAM 2016, Rome, Italy, April 26-27, 2016, Revised selected papers / Cédric Grueau, Robert Laurini, Jorge Gustavo Rocha (eds.)

Online Resource




ri

Placing empire: travel and the social imagination in imperial Japan / Kate McDonald

Online Resource




ri

Picturing America: the golden age of pictorial maps / Stephen J. Hornsby

Hayden Library - G1201.A5 H67 2017




ri

Placing names: enriching and integrating gazetteers / edited by Merrick Lex Berman, Ruth Mostern, and Humphrey Southall

Hayden Library - G103.5.P53 2016




ri

Ecotourism's promise and peril: a biological evaluation / Daniel T. Blumstein, Benjamin Geffroy, Diogo S. M. Samia, Eduardo Bessa, editors

Online Resource




ri

Sustainable tourism on a finite planet: environmental, business and policy solutions / Megan Epler Wood

Dewey Library - G156.5.S87 E64 2017




ri

Exploring Greenland: cold war science and technology on ice / Ronald E. Doel, Kristine C. Harper, Matthias Heymann, editors

Hayden Library - G743.E96 2016




ri

The Oxford handbook of the prehistoric Arctic / edited by T. Max Friesen and Owen K. Mason

Hayden Library - G606.O94 2016




ri

Geoparks and geo-tourism in Iran / edited by Andreas Dittmann

Rotch Library - G155.I65 G46 2017




ri

Endeavouring Banks: exploring collections from the Endeavour voyage, 1768-1771 / Neil Chambers, with contributions by Anna Agnarsdottir, Sir David Attenborough, Jeremy Coote, Philip J. Hatfield and John Gascoigne

Hayden Library - G420.B18 C43 2016




ri

Spatio-temporal graph data analytics / Venkata M. V. Gunturi, Shashi Shekhar

Online Resource




ri

Basic Principles of Topography by Blagoja Markoski

Online Resource




ri

New lines: critical GIS and the trouble of the map / Matthew W. Wilson

Rotch Library - G70.212.W55 2017




ri

Affective critical regionality / Neil Campbell

Rotch Library - G71.5.C338 2016




ri

The Palgrave handbook of dark tourism studies / Philip R. Stone, Rudi Hartmann, Tony Seaton, Richard Sharpley, Leanne White, editors

Online Resource




ri

The anarchist's guide to travel: a manual for future hitchhikers, hobos, and other misfit wanderers / by Matthew Derrick

Hayden Library - G151.D47 2017




ri

Geospatial technologies for all: selected papers of the 21st AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science / Ali Mansourian, Petter Pilesjö, Lars Harrie, Ron van Lammeren, editors

Online Resource




ri

Understanding GPS/GNSS: Principles and Applications, Third Edition / by Elliott D. Kaplan, Christopher J. Hegarty

Online Resource




ri

The spectral Arctic: a history of ghosts and dreams in polar exploration / Shane McCorristine

Online Resource




ri

Target scattering mechanism in polarimetric synthetic aperture radar: interpretation and application / Si-Wei Chen, Xue-Song Wang, Shun-Ping Xiao, Motoyuki Sato

Online Resource




ri

The Palgrave Handbook of Sustainability: Case Studies and Practical Solutions / edited by Robert Brinkmann, Sandra J. Garren

Online Resource




ri

Web and wireless geographical information systems: 16th International Symposium, W2GIS 2018, A Coruña, Spain, May 21-22, 2018, Proceedings / Miguel R. Luaces, Farid Karimipour (eds.)

Online Resource




ri

Peer-to-peer accommodation networks: pushing the boundaries / Sara Dolnicar

Dewey Library - G156.5.P44 D65 2018




ri

Tourism, Territory and Sustainable Development: Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Applications in Japan and Europe / João Romão

Online Resource




ri

Tangible modeling with open source GIS / Anna Petrasova, Brendan Harmon, Vaclav Petras, Payam Tabrizian, Helena Mitasova

Online Resource




ri

Transnational tourism experiences at Gallipoli / Jim McKay

Online Resource