Relationship between solar radiation and surface distribution of vegetation in Fildes Peninsula and Ardley Island,Maritime Antarctica

The aim of this work is to produce a simplified vegetation map of ice-free areas of the Fildes Peninsula (FP) and Ardley Island (AI) thought object-oriented classification using a QuickBird satellite image and to evaluate the influence of the global solar radiation (GSR) over the vegetation distribution. The vegetation data were generated from multiresolution segmentation using the panchromatic and infrared layers, and for the classification we calculated the normalized vegetative difference index (NVDI) and the green NVDI. Two classes were created – Lichen and Moss Cushion SubFormation and Moss Subformation – with 48 vegetation samples collected on surveys during the austral summers of 2008 and 2009. We used a kappa index to evaluate the classification efficiency using 100 sampled points obtained in austral summer of 2013. The GSR was estimated, and in order to evaluate the effect of meteorological phenomena and cloudless, we measured the GSR using a net radiometer model CNR4 installed in FP between 2014 and 2016. The estimate of GSR was done for seasons of 2015, in order to estimate the light compensation point and the saturation point for the plant communities in FP and AI. The kappa index was 0.73 and the global accuracy was 0.78, showing consistency between the classification and ground truth. The area was covered by vegetation in FP was 16.7% and in AI is 59.1%. The vegetation cover is distributed differently at FP and AI, and our results suggest GSR plays an important role in vegetation distribution and these tendencies could be related to greater GSR demand by mosses when compared to lichens.     

Safety-enhanced Collaborative Framework for Tele-operated Minimally Invasive Surgery Using a 7-DoF Torque-controlled Robot

International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems - In this paper, a safety-enhanced collaborative control framework is proposed for tele-operated minimally invasive surgery (MIS) using a...     

Ethnically bounded homeownership: qualitative insights on Los Angeles immigrant homeowners’ experiences during the U.S. Great Recession

Immigrant homeowners’ function within ethnic boundaries in the housing market may have helped or hindered them during the recent U.S. Great Recession. This research explores this theme through interviews with immigrant and non-immigrant homeowners from four ethnic communities in Los Angeles County and the non-profit organizations that tried to assist them. Immigrant homeowners turned to co-ethnics for advice and support and formed multigenerational households as a strategy to achieve and sustain homeownership. Language and cultural barriers primed them for risky loans and thwarted their pursuit of refinance and modification when they struggled to make mortgage payments. These findings conform to existing evidence of ethnic segmentation in the housing market and imply that analyses of home buying and homeownership in areas with significant immigrant populations should factor in the role of ethnicity.     

The effect of the research setting on the emotional and sensory profiling under blind,expected, and informed conditions: A study on premium and private label yogurt products

Although sensory and emotional evaluation of food products mostly occurs in a controlled laboratory environment, it is often criticized as it may not reflect a realistic situation for consumers. Moreover, products are mainly blind evaluated by participants, whereas external factors such as brand are often considered as key drivers of food choice. This study aims to examine the role of research setting (central location test versus home-use test) and brand information on the overall acceptance, and sensory and emotional profiling of 5 strawberry-flavored yogurts. Thereby, private label and premium brands are compared under 3 conditions: blind, expected, and informed (brand information). A total of 99 adult subjects participated in 3 sessions over 3 consecutive weeks. Results showed that overall liking for 2 yogurt samples was higher in the laboratory environment under the informed evaluation condition, whereas no effect of research setting was found under the blind and expected conditions. Although emotional profiles of the products differed depending on the research setting, this was less the case for the sensory profiles. Furthermore, brand information clearly affected the sensory perception of certain attributes but had less influence on overall liking and emotional profiling. These results indicate that both scientists and food companies should consider the effect of the chosen methodology on ecological validity when conducting sensory research with consumers because the laboratory context could lead to a more positive evaluation compared with a home-use test.     

Estimation of the atmospheric boundary layer height during different atmospheric conditions: a comparison on reliability of several methods applied to lidar measurements

The performance of six numerical methods usually used to determine the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) height from lidar measurements was investigated under different atmospheric conditions: results were compared with those obtained from radiosoundings to analyse their reliability for ABL-height retrievals. The selected methods were the gradient method (GM), the logarithm gradient method (LGM), the inflection point method (IPM), the wavelet covariance transform (WCT), the centroid/variance method (VM), and the cluster analysis (CA). Lidar measurements were carried out in the frame of the ‘Atmospheric Minor Species relevant to the Ozone Chemistry’ (AMISOC) project during a multi-instrument campaign conducted at the INTA/Atmospheric Observatory ‘El Arenosillo’ (INTA/ARN) in south-western Spain from 15 May to 20 June 2012. The goal of this work is to analyse the performance and robustness of the different lidar methods in this region, characterized by particular atmospheric conditions. In particular, both events of sea–land breeze regimes and episodes of Saharan dust intrusions were studied. In most days, similar results were obtained by all lidar methods in the events of sea–land breeze regimes, presenting relative absolute differences between lidar and radiosounding retrievals below 12% in average. However, big discrepancies between lidar and radiosounding retrievals are found when residual layers are present in the measurements. In such cases, the vertical extension of lidar and radiosounding profiles must to be limited to the altitude of the residual layer bottom. In a second analysis, focused on diurnal variability in the ABL heights under non-dusty (ND) and dusty (DD) conditions, the methods were tested against intensive radiosoundings launched every 4 h over 2 days. Under ND conditions, the best results were achieved for the LGM, presenting a mean of the relative absolute differences respect to radiosounding measurements of 10%. The rest of methods also provided good results with relative differences below 20% in average. Under DD conditions, however, an increase of the relative differences is found with mean values of up 32%. In this case, best results are given by CA with a mean relative difference of 20%. Despite the limited data set used in this work, results show that unlike the ND conditions for which all lidar methods provide good results respect to radiosounding retrievals, under DD conditions the election of the lidar method is a key factor for ABL estimation. However, we remark the need of extending our analysis to longer periods of time to better characterize the differences observed in this work.     

Supporting the design of data integration requirements during the development of data warehouses: a communication theory-based approach

Data warehouses (DW) form the backbone of data integration that is necessary for analytical applications, and play important roles in the information technology landscape of many industries. We introduce an approach for addressing the fundamental problem of semantic heterogeneity in the design of data integration requirements during DW development. In contrast to ontology-driven or schema-matching approaches, which propose the automatic resolution of differences ex-post, our approach addresses the core problem of data integration requirements: understanding and resolving different contextual meanings of data fields. We ground the approach firmly in communication theory and build on practices from agile software development. Besides providing relevant insights for the design of data integration requirements, our findings point to communication theory as a sound underlying foundation for a design theory of information systems development.     

Hemispherical Brillouin zone imaging of a diamond-type biological photonic crystal

The brilliant structural body colours of many animals are created by three-dimensional biological photonic crystals that act as wavelength-specific reflectors. Here, we report a study on the vividly coloured scales of the diamond weevil, Entimus imperialis. Electron microscopy identified the chitin and air assemblies inside the scales as domains of a single-network diamond (Fd3m) photonic crystal. We visualized the topology of the first Brillouin zone (FBZ) by imaging scatterometry, and we reconstructed the complete photonic band structure diagram (PBSD) of the chitinous photonic crystal from reflectance spectra. Comparison with calculated PBSDs indeed showed a perfect overlap. The unique method of non-invasive hemispherical imaging of the FBZ provides key insights for the investigation of photonic crystals in the visible wavelength range. The characterized extremely large biophotonic nanostructures of E. imperialis are structurally optimized for high reflectance and may thus be well suited for use as a template for producing novel photonic devices, e.g. through biomimicry or direct infiltration from dielectric material.     

Efficiency evaluation for pooling resources in health care

Hospitals traditionally segregate resources into centralized functional departments such as diagnostic departments, ambulatory care centers, and nursing wards. In recent years this organizational model has been challenged by the idea that higher quality of care and efficiency in service delivery can be achieved when services are organized around patient groups. Examples include specialized clinics for breast cancer patients and clinical pathways for diabetes patients. Hospitals are struggling with the question of whether to become more centralized to achieve economies of scale or more decentralized to achieve economies of focus. In this paper we examine service and patient group characteristics to study the conditions where a centralized model is more efficient, and conversely, where a decentralized model is more efficient. This relationship is examined analytically with a queuing model to determine the most influential factors and then with simulation to fine-tune the results. The tradeoffs between economies of scale and economies of focus measured by these models are used to derive general management guidelines.     

Texture Prediction in Intact Green Asparagus by Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy,Assaying Linear and Non-linear Regression Strategies

Texture-related parameters were assessed in intact green asparagus at harvest and during postharvest storage using near-infrared spectroscopy combined with MPLS and LOCAL algorithms. Three spectrophotometers were evaluated for this purpose: a monochromator (range, 400–2,500 nm), a diode-array Vis–NIR spectrophotometer (range, 400–1,700 nm), and a handheld micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) spectrophotometer (range, 1,600–2,400 nm). Three hundred green asparagus spears (cv. “Grande”) were used to obtain calibration models based on reference data and NIR data. Results for maximum shear force showed that LOCAL algorithm improved the predictive capacity of models constructed using all three NIRS instruments, increasing r ² by 24, 16, and 56 % and reducing the SEP(c) values by 11, 8, and 14 %, respectively. For cutting energy, the LOCAL also improved the predictive capacity of the models (r ² increased by 3 % for the monochromator and the diode-array instrument and by 6 % for the MEMS device; and the SEP(c) decreased by 3 % in the three instruments). It is worth noting that while the monochromator and diode-array instruments displayed similar predictive capacity for the parameters tested, the MEMS instrument achieved slightly poorer results but has clear advantages for the measurement of texture in intact asparagus, being economical, portable, and easy to use in situ.