How biodiversity classification, with its ranking of species, has social and political implications as well as implications for the field of information studies. The idea that species live in nature as pure and clear-cut named individuals is a fiction, as scientists well know. According to Robert D. Montoya, classifications are powerful mechanisms and we must better attend to the machinations of power inherent in them, as well as to how the effects of this power proliferate beyond the boundaries of their original intent. We must acknowledge the many ways our classifications are implicated in environmental, ecological, and social justice work—and information specialists must play a role in updating our notions of what it means to classify. In Power of Position, Montoya shows how classifications are systems that relate one entity with other entities, requiring those who construct a system to value an entity’s relative importance—by way of its position—within a system of other entities. These practices, says Montoya, are important ways of constituting and exerting power. Classification also has very real-world consequences. An animal classified as protected and endangered, for example, is protected by law. Montoya also discusses the Catalogue of Life, a new kind of composite classification that reconciles many local (“traditional”) taxonomies, forming a unified taxonomic backbone structure for organizing biological data. Finally, he shows how the theories of information studies are applicable to realms far beyond those of biological classification.

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A comprehensive review of position location technology — from fundamental theory to advanced practical applications Positioning systems and location technologies have become significant components of modern life, used in a multitude of areas such as law enforcement and security, road safety and navigation, personnel and object tracking, and many more. Position location systems have greatly reduced societal vulnerabilities and enhanced the quality of life for billions of people around the globe — yet limited resources are available to researchers and students in this important field. The Handbook of Position Location: Theory, Practice, and Advances fills this gap, providing a comprehensive overview of both fundamental and cutting-edge techniques and introducing practical methods of advanced localization and positioning. Now in its second edition, this handbook offers broad and in-depth coverage of essential topics including Time of Arrival (TOA) and Direction of Arrival (DOA) based positioning, Received Signal Strength (RSS) based positioning, network localization, and others. Topics such as GPS, autonomous vehicle applications, and visible light localization are examined, while major revisions to chapters such as body area network positioning and digital signal processing for GNSS receivers reflect current and emerging advances in the field. This new edition: Presents new and revised chapters on topics including localization error evaluation, Kalman filtering, positioning in inhomogeneous media, and Global Positioning (GPS) in harsh environments Offers MATLAB examples to demonstrate fundamental algorithms for positioning and provides online access to all MATLAB code Allows practicing engineers and graduate students to keep pace with contemporary research and new technologies Contains numerous application-based examples including the application of localization to drone navigation, capsule endoscopy localization, and satellite navigation and localization Reviews unique applications of position location systems, including GNSS and RFID-based localization systems The Handbook of Position Location: Theory, Practice, and Advances is valuable resource for practicing engineers and researchers seeking to keep pace with current developments in the field, graduate students in need of clear and accurate course material, and university instructors teaching the fundamentals of wireless localization.