Soil hydraulic parameters estimated from satellite information through data assimilation

Leaf area index (LAI) and actual evapotranspiration (ET_a) from satellite observations were used to estimate simultaneously the soil hydraulic parameters of four soil layers down to 60 cm depth using the combined soil water atmosphere plant and genetic algorithm (SWAP–GA) model. This inverse model assimilates the remotely sensed LAI and/or ET_a by searching for the most appropriate sets of soil hydraulic parameters that could minimize the difference between the observed and simulated LAI (LAI_sim) or simulated ET_a (ET_asim). The simulated soil moisture estimates derived from soil hydraulic parameters were validated using values obtained from soil moisture sensors installed in the field. Results showed that the soil hydraulic parameters derived from LAI alone yielded good estimations of soil moisture at 3 cm depth; LAI and ET_a in combination at 12 cm depth, and ET_a alone at 28 cm depth. There appeared to be no match with measurement at 60 cm depth. Additional information would therefore be needed to better estimate soil hydraulic parameters at greater depths. Despite this inability of satellite data alone to provide reliable estimates of soil moisture at the lowest depth, derivation of soil hydraulic parameters using remote sensing methods remains a promising area for research with significant application potential. This is especially the case in areas of water management for agriculture and in forecasting of floods or drought on the regional scale.     

Vegetation classification method with biochemical composition estimated from remote sensing data

In this article, a vegetation classification hypothesis based on plant biochemical composition is presented. The basic idea of this hypothesis is that the vegetation species/crops have their own biochemical composition characteristics, which are separable from each other for those co-existing species at a specific region. Therefore, vegetation species can be classified based on the biochemical composition characteristics, which can be retrieved from hyperspectral remote-sensing data. In order to test this hypothesis, an experiment was conducted in north-western China. Field data on the biochemical compositions and spectral responses of different plants and an Earth-observing 1 (EO-1) Hyperion image were simultaneously collected. After analysing the relationship between biochemical composition and spectral data collected from Hyperion, the vegetation biochemical compositions were estimated using sample biochemical data and bands of Hyperion data. The vegetation classification was completed using the biochemical content classifier (BCC) and maximum-likelihood classifier (MLC) with all Hyperion bands (MLC_A) and selected bands (MLC_S), which were used for estimating considered biochemical contents (cellulose and carotenoid). The overall classification accuracy of the BCC (95.2%) was as good as MLC_S (95.2%) and better than MLC_A (91.1%), as was the kappa value (BCC 92.849%, MLC_S 92.845%, MLC_A 86.637%), suggesting that the BCC was a feasible classification method. The biochemical-based classification method has higher vegetation classification accuracy and execution speed, reduces data dimension and redundancy and needs only a few spectral bands to retrieve biochemical contents instead of using all of the spectral bands. It is an effective method to classify vegetation based on plant biochemical composition characteristics.     

The y-intercept of the critical power function as a measure of anaerobic work capacity

When bouts of muscular work are performed to exhaustion at different intensities, the slope of the regression of maximal work (work limit) on maximal time (time limit) is referred to as critical power (CP). The y-intercept of this function is considered to represent anaerobic work capacity (AWC). The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship between the y-intercept from the critical power curve and measures of AWC (total work accomplished, maximal blood lactate and post-exercise venous blood pH) gained from repeated, maximal exercise. Nine male volunteers of moderately high training status (VO2 max 4.45 +/- 0.251/min) completed three cycle ergometer tests to exhaustion (at 300, 350 and 400 W) for the determination of CP. A second cycle ergometer task involved repeated maximal effort (against 0.075 N/kg body mass) over five 1 min periods. Five min of passive recovery separated each exercise bout, at the end of which capillary blood was collected for lactate analysis. On completion of the fifth bout, venous blood was sampled for the determination of blood pH. Total accumulated work provided a performance estimate of AWC which, together with blood lactate and pH, was compared to the y-intercept. Correlation analysis revealed a significant relation between the y-intercept and total work accomplished (r = 0.74; p less than 0.05), while post-exercise venous blood pH was positively related to both the y-intercept (r = 0.92; p less than 0.01) and the accumulated work recorded (r = 0.92; p less than 0.01). No significant correlation between peak blood lactate and work was found (r = 0.16; ns), although a relation between post-exercise venous blood pH and VO2 max was established (r = 0.84; p less than 0.05). The capacity for high intensity interval work was well represented by the y-intercept in active males. Furthermore, the relations between blood pH and both the y-intercept and accumulated work suggest that either improved buffering or a greater contribution of aerobic metabolism to the energy yield may have been responsible for the more successful performances in the interval exercise.     

The correlation between visual fatigue and duration of viewing as assessed by brain monitoring

Duration of viewing was considered as one of the most important factors of 3D visual fatigue. However, their relationship was not well studied. We proposed to use brain monitoring techniques to reveal more details about the variety of brain activity while watching three‐dimensional (3D) content. We investigated the spectral patterns in the electroencephalogram related to various duration of viewing and showed the power spectral density varied significantly along with the development of fatigue over occipital lobe, parietal lobe, and right frontal lobe. Moreover, we first described the trend of brain activity during 3D content viewing and revealed the location of significant components related to 3D visual fatigue. We believe that the absolute power describes more information and may be a better indicator of 3D visual fatigue assessment compared with relative power. We also first revealed the cortex location that is related to 3D visual fatigue. Our findings may help to define appropriate electroencephalogram features for online 3D visual fatigue detection while participants viewing 3D content.     

On the relation between HCMM satellite data and temperatures from standard meteorological sites in complex terrain

Data from the Heat Capacity Mapping Mission Experiment Satellite (HCMM) are used to plot lines of constant temperature at 1° intervals for the city of Melbourne and surrounding country. Using four individual scenes, the relationship between uncalibrated, i.e. relative, surface temperature and screen daily minimum air temperature at some 26 standard meteorological stations in the greater Melbourne region was studied. It was found that the relation between the two data sources is poor for the sites taken separately but that means of daily minimum temperatures for appropriately grouped meteorological sites show a consistent linear relationship with night-time HCMM data. The HCMM data also show significant variation in surface temperatures within short distances from meteorological sites and it is concluded that surface temperatures in such an area vary on a spatial scale that is large compared with the area sampled by a standard meteorological site but small compared with an HCMM pixel. The implications are that a number of sites arc needed to characterize a region independently of site-specific effects (i.e. that appropriately grouped sites can under some circumstances be used for calibrating satellite thermal data) and that thermal imagery could provide criteria for the selection of new standard meteorological sites.     

An invitation to critical social science of big data: from critical theory and critical research to omniresistance

AI & SOCIETY - How a social science of big data would look like? In this article, we exemplify such a social science through a number of cases. We start our discussion with the epistemic...     

Automatic multi-modal intelligent seizure acquisition (MISA) system for detection of motor seizures from electromyographic data and motion data

The objective is to develop a non-invasive automatic method for detection of epileptic seizures with motor manifestations. Ten healthy subjects who simulated seizures and one patient participated in the study. Surface electromyography (sEMG) and motion sensor features were extracted as energy measures of reconstructed sub-bands from the discrete wavelet transformation (DWT) and the wavelet packet transformation (WPT). Based on the extracted features all data segments were classified using a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm as simulated seizure or normal activity. A case study of the seizure from the patient showed that the simulated seizures were visually similar to the epileptic one. The multi-modal intelligent seizure acquisition (MISA) system showed high sensitivity, short detection latency and low false detection rate. The results showed superiority of the multi-modal detection system compared to the uni-modal one. The presented system has a promising potential for seizure detection based on multi-modal data.     

The power test for data dependence

A data dependence decision algorithm called the power test is introduced. The power test is a combination of the extended GCD algorithm and the Fourier-Motzkin method to eliminate variables in a system of inequalities. This is the first test that can generate the information needed for some advanced transformations, and that can handle complex simultaneous loop limits. Previous work in data dependence decision algorithms is reviewed. Some examples which motivated the development of this test are examined, including those which demonstrate the additional power of the power test. Although it may be too expensive for use as a general-purpose dependence test in a compiler, the power test has proved useful in an interactive program restructuring environment     

Assessing the accuracy of land surface characteristics estimated from multi-angular remotely sensed data

New missions and technically advanced sensors are being developed by researchers to monitor our planet from space at different spatial and spectral resolutions. Characterizing the terrestrial biomes on a global scale is a key issue in understanding climate change and the evolution of the Earth's atmosphere system. New advanced models on radiation in plant stands and more heterogeneous biomes are used to interpret satellite- and airborne sensor data and identify information on the Earth's surface. This paper presents an investigation on estimation of canopy and leaf level quantities by multidirectional remotely sensed data in three spectral bands. The purpose is to evaluate the goodness of a model in a controlled environment, using artificial input data. The results of the experiment indicate that the required information on leaf optical properties can be derived with a good accuracy within the constraints of the experiment. Estimated stand structure characteristics are more prone to error. Scaling issues, including temporal, spectral and spatial resolution, and surface heterogeneity are not addressed in this experiment.     

Segment inertial parameters of Korean adults estimated from three-dimensional body laser scan data

In this study, body segment parameters of Korean adults were estimated using the three-dimensional (3D) body scan data from the SizeKorea database. Mass-inertial parameters and segment dimensions of 40 male subjects and 40 female subjects (18-59 years old) were estimated using a 16-segment model under the assumption that each segment has a constant density distribution after reconstructing the scan data. Therefore, several sets of linear regression functions based on gender, stature, and weight were established, which provided a convenient method for estimating body segment parameters of Korean adults. The obtained mass ratios of body segments were compared with those for Russians reported by Zatsiorsky and Seluyanov (1983) and for those for Chinese and Germans reported by Shan and Bohn (2003), in which the same 16-segment model was used. In addition, the results were compared with the Korean data results reported by [Jung, 1993] and [Lim, 1994], and Park et al. (1999). These comparisons revealed that Asians have larger head mass ratios and smaller lower limb mass ratios than Caucasians, while the differences in the head mass ratios between males and females from the same ethnic groups were not significant. Females were found to have larger mass ratios for the lower torso and smaller mass ratios for the upper torso, middle torso, upper arm, forearm, foot, and hand, as compared to males from the same ethnic groups. In addition, the data obtained by different researchers were compared, thereby showing high reproducibility of our method.

Relevance to industry

The obtained segment parameters can be used to define digital human models and applied to the fields of ergonomics and biomechanics, such as for workspace design, furniture design, vehicle interior design, and human movement analysis.     

Detection of haze and its intensity based on visibility and relative humidity estimated from MODIS data

Over recent years, air pollution has become a serious environmental problem with frequent occurrence of hazy days in many Chinese cities. In this study, a satellite-based method was developed to detect haze and its intensity for the Chinese city of Nanjing. This detection was based on the joint consideration of two indices, visibility, and relative humidity. They were determined from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer-derived aerosol optical thickness, surface temperature, and precipitable water vapour data. Evaluated against the in situ measured results, haze and its intensity were found to be detected at a maximum accuracy of 81.7% and 60%, respectively. Of the two indices, visibility plays a more important role than relative humidity in affecting the detection accuracy. It is concluded that it is feasible to detect haze and its intensity from satellite data.     

Muscle fatigue during intermittent isokinetic shoulder abduction: Age effects and utility of electromyographic measures

Most existing evidence regarding the effects of age on muscular fatigue has focused on prolonged isometric contractions, repeated maximum dynamic contractions and individuals beyond traditional retirement age (>65 years). In the present study, age-related differences in muscle fatigue during submaximal dynamic efforts were examined. There were 24 younger (18–25 years) and 24 older (55–65 years) participants, all of whom were healthy and active, with equal numbers of each gender within each age group. Participants performed repetitive, intermittent shoulder abductions until exhaustion, at peak moments of 30% and 40% of individual maximum voluntary isokinetic contraction (MVIC) and with cycle durations of 20 and 40 s. Fatigue development was determined based on changes in MVIC, electromyographic (EMG) signals and ratings of perceived discomfort (RPD). Following the exhaustive exercises, strength recovery was monitored using a series of MVICs over a 15-min period. Results indicated the existence of an age-related fatigue resistance, with the older group demonstrating significantly slower rates of MVIC decline and RPD increase and smaller modifications in EMG-based fatigue measures. These age effects were generally more pronounced at the higher effort level. Main effects of effort level and cycle duration were also significant, while gender effects appeared to be marginal. Rates of strength recovery were not significantly influenced by age. In addition, the utility of standard EMG-based fatigue measures was assessed. Findings indicated that time-dependent changes in static and dynamic EMG-based measures were roughly comparable in terms of sensitivity and variability, supporting the use of standard EMG analyses for fatigue monitoring during intermittent dynamic contractions.     

Muscle fatigue during intermittent isokinetic shoulder abduction: age effects and utility of electromyographic measures

Most existing evidence regarding the effects of age on muscular fatigue has focused on prolonged isometric contractions, repeated maximum dynamic contractions and individuals beyond traditional retirement age (>65 years). In the present study, age-related differences in muscle fatigue during submaximal dynamic efforts were examined. There were 24 younger (18-25 years) and 24 older (55-65 years) participants, all of whom were healthy and active, with equal numbers of each gender within each age group. Participants performed repetitive, intermittent shoulder abductions until exhaustion, at peak moments of 30% and 40% of individual maximum voluntary isokinetic contraction (MVIC) and with cycle durations of 20 and 40 s. Fatigue development was determined based on changes in MVIC, electromyographic (EMG) signals and ratings of perceived discomfort (RPD). Following the exhaustive exercises, strength recovery was monitored using a series of MVICs over a 15-min period. Results indicated the existence of an age-related fatigue resistance, with the older group demonstrating significantly slower rates of MVIC decline and RPD increase and smaller modifications in EMG-based fatigue measures. These age effects were generally more pronounced at the higher effort level. Main effects of effort level and cycle duration were also significant, while gender effects appeared to be marginal. Rates of strength recovery were not significantly influenced by age. In addition, the utility of standard EMG-based fatigue measures was assessed. Findings indicated that time-dependent changes in static and dynamic EMG-based measures were roughly comparable in terms of sensitivity and variability, supporting the use of standard EMG analyses for fatigue monitoring during intermittent dynamic contractions.     

Statistical analysis of deviation of actual cost from estimated cost using actual project data

This paper analyzes an association of a deviation of the actual cost (measured by person-month) from the estimated cost with the quality and the productivity of software development projects. Although the obtained results themselves may not be new from the academic point of view, they could provide motivation for developers to join process improvement activities in a software company and thus become a driving force for promoting the process improvement.We show that if a project is performed faithfully under a well-organized project plan (i.e. the plan is first constructed according to the standards of good writing, and then a project is managed and controlled to meet the plan), the deviation of the actual cost from the estimated one becomes small. Next we show statistically that projects with small deviation of the cost estimate tend to achieve high quality of final products and high productivity of development teams. In this analysis, the actual project data on 37 projects at a certain company are extensively applied.     

A relation between overshoot and sampling period in sampled data feedback control systems

This correspondence shows that the overshoot of response of a sampled data feedback control system sometimes tends to infinity as the sampling period tends to zero provided that the assigned poles are constant. This suggests that an optimal sampling period exists in designing, deadbeat controllers.     

The relation between EA effectiveness and stakeholder satisfaction

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is increasingly being used by large organizations to get a grip on the complexity of their business processes, information systems and technical infrastructure. Although seen as an important instrument to help solve major organizational problems, effectively applying EA seems no easy task. Active participation of EA stakeholders is one of the main critical success factors for EA. This participation depends on the degree in which EA helps stakeholders achieve their individual goals. A highly related topic is effectiveness of EA, the degree in which EA helps to achieve the collective goals of the organization. In this article we present our work regarding EA stakeholder satisfaction and EA effectiveness, and compare these two topics. We found that, regarding EA, the individual goals of stakeholders map quite well onto the collective goals of the organization. In a case study we conducted, we found that the organization is primarily concerned with the final results of EA, while individual stakeholders also worry about the way the architects operate.     

关系模式与XML模式的相互转换

XML数据具有自描述特性,所以能够从自身得到描述自己的类似于数据库的数据模式,又由于XML具有树型结构的特点,由此可以把XML模式转化为关系模式,同样关系模式也能够转化为XML模式,本文将分别给出如何实现这两个模式的相互转化的算法.     

The relation between SAR imagery and regional sea ice ridging characteristics from BEPERS-88

Abstract

In the Bothnian Experiment in Preparation for ERS-1 (BEPERS-88) airborne laser profiles and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images were obtained simultaneously over the pack ice in the Bay of Bothnia, Baltic Sea. The possibility of mapping ice ridging characteristics using SAR has been analysed. SAR intensity histograms and ridging statistics have been compared in regions with length scales from 3 to 23 km. The measures for the intensity of ridging were taken from the profilometer data as functions of the number of ridges and mean ridge height. The results show that, from SAR intensity distribution, an average of 10 per cent upper tail divided by the overall average is a good predictor for the ridging intensity. This predictor explains 80-90 per cent of the variance.     

共信道下微波输能与数据通信干扰机制研究

研究了间歇共信道机制下,微波输能与传感器节点通信之间的影响关系;建立了丢帧率模型表达式,分析了丢帧率与输能持续时间、间歇时间和数据传输速率之间的关系。仿真结果表明,输能持续时间和间歇时间的比值越大,丢帧率越高;在数据传输速率小于100kbit/s时,数据传输速率越小,丢帧率越低。实测结果证明了丢帧率模型的有效性。