Evaluation of Global Water Resources Reanalysis Runoff Products for Local Water Resources Applications: Case Study-Upper Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia

The increasing availability of global observation datasets, both from in situ and remote sensors, and advancements in earth system models and data assimilation algorithms have generated a number of water resources reanalysis products that are available at global scale and high spatial and temporal resolutions. These products hold great potential for water resources applications, but their levels of uncertainty need to be evaluated at local scale. In this work, we evaluate the runoff product from two multi-model global water resources reanalyses (WRRs), available at 0.5° (WRR1) and 0.25° (WRR2) grid resolutions, which were produced within the framework of a European Union project (eartH2Observe) in the upper Blue Nile basin. Analysis indicates that the recently released WRR2 UniK product exhibits consistently better performance statistics than the earlier coarser-resolution WRR1 and the rest of the WRR2 products at all ranges of temporal and spatial scale evaluated. Streamflow simulations based on gauged rainfall forcing and the locally set hydrological model CREST outperforms all the other products, including UniK. Global hydrological products can be a data source for various water resources planning and management applications in data-scarce areas of Africa. This study cautions against using available global hydrological products without prior uncertainty evaluation.

     

Tool life increase of coated carbide tools by micro blasting

In today’s production engineering nearly every cutting tool is coated. Since using the technology of coating different process chains for reconditioning have been developed. The last innovation is micro blasted coatings, which is the main topic of this paper. Concerning this topic influences on tool life have been investigated. Investigations on the tool life especially of hobbing tools were made thereby and coherences between coating bond, roughness and other attributes were discovered. The investigations were made with an aluminum oxide and a zirconium oxide as blasting abrasives and a variation of the blasting parameters pressure and period. The final result is an optimization of tool wear behavior by micro blasting of the coating.     

Transient Photoinduced Absorption in Ultrathin As-grown Nanocrystalline Silicon Films

We have studied ultrafast carrier dynamics in nanocrystalline silicon films with thickness of a few nanometers where boundary-related states and quantum confinement play an important role. Transient non-degenerated photoinduced absorption measurements have been employed to investigate the effects of grain boundaries and quantum confinement on the relaxation dynamics of photogenerated carriers. An observed long initial rise of the photoinduced absorption for the thicker films agrees well with the existence of boundary-related states acting as fast traps. With decreasing the thickness of material, the relaxation dynamics become faster since the density of boundary-related states increases. Furthermore, probing with longer wavelengths we are able to time-resolve optical paths with faster relaxations. This fact is strongly correlated with probing in different points of the first Brillouin zone of the band structure of these materials.     

Correction to: A decentralized honeypot for IoT Protocols based on Android devices

International Journal of Information Security -     

Bilio-bronchial fistulae caused by rupture of an hydatid cyst of the liver. Experiences with a modified method of operation (author's transl)

In this study, bilio-bronchial fistulae caused by the rupture of an hydatid cyst of the superior surface of the liver to the bronchi of the middle or lower lobe of the right lung, are discussed. Bilio-bronchial fistulae are treated surgically at one stage, through thorako-abdominal or separate abdominal and thoracic incision in combination. The radical treatment of the hydatid cyst of the liver consists in partial cystectomy and capitonnage, followed by common bile duct drainage. The radical treatment of the thoracic lesions consists in excision of the empyematic sac and lung lobectomy or segmental resection if necessary. The results are compared with those of former surgical management.     

A spatial stochastic model for worm propagation: scale effects

Realistic models for worm propagation in the Internet have become one of the major topics in the academic literature concerning network security. In this paper, we propose an evolution equation for worm propagation in a very small number of Internet hosts, hereinafter called a subnet and introduce a generalization of the classical epidemic model by including a second order spatial term which models subnet interactions. The corresponding gradient coefficient is a measure of the characteristic scale of interactions and as a result a novel scale approach for understanding the evolution of worm population in different scales, is considered. Results concerning random scan strategies and local preference scan worms are presented. A comparison of the proposed model with simulation results is also presented. Based on our model, more efficient monitoring strategies could be deployed.     

Critical Rays Scan Match SLAM

Scan matching is one of the oldest and simplest methods for occupancy grid based SLAM. The general idea is to find the pose of a robot and update its map simply by calculating the 2-D transformation between a laser scan and its predecessor. Due to its simplicity many solutions were proposed and used in various systems, the vast majority of which are iterative. The fact is, that although scan matching is simple in its implementation, it suffers from accumulative noise. Of course, there is certainly a trade-off between the quality of results and the execution time required. Many algorithms have been introduced, in order to achieve good quality maps in a small iteration time, so that on-line execution would be achievable. The proposed SLAM scheme performs scan matching by implementing a ray-selection method. The main idea is to reduce complexity and time needed for matching by pre-processing the scan and selecting rays that are critical for the matching process. In this paper, several different methods of ray-selection are compared. In addition matching is performed between the current scan and the global robot map, in order to minimize the accumulated errors. RRHC (Random Restart Hill Climbing) is employed for matching the scan to the map, which is a local search optimization procedure that can be easily parameterized and is much faster than a traditional genetic algorithm (GA), largely because of the low complexity of the problem. The general idea is to construct a parameterizable SLAM that can be used in an on-line system that requires low computational cost. The proposed algorithm assumes a structured civil environment, is oriented for use in the RoboCup - RoboRescue competition, and its main purpose is to construct high quality maps.     

Improving accuracy in astrocytomas grading by integrating a robust least squares mapping driven support vector machine classifier into a two level grade classification scheme

Grading of astrocytomas is an important task for treatment planning; however, it suffers from significantly great inter-observer variability. Computer-assisted diagnosis systems have been propose to assist towards minimizing subjectivity, however, these systems present either moderate accuracy or utilize specialized staining protocols and grading systems that are difficult to apply in daily clinical practice. The present study proposes a robust mathematical formulation by integrating state-of-art technologies (support vector machines and least squares mapping) in a cascade classification scheme for separating low from high and grade III from grade IV astrocytic tumours. Results have indicated that low from high-grade tumours can be correctly separated with a certainty as high as 97.3%, whereas grade III from grade IV tumours with 97.8%. The overall performance was 95.2%. These high rates have been a result of applying the least squares mapping technique to features prior to classification. A significant byproduct of least squares mapping is that the number of support vectors of the SVM classifiers dropped dramatically from about 80% when no mapping was used to less than 5% when mapping was used. The latter is a clear indication that the SVM classifier has a greater potential to generalize well to new data. In this way, digital image analysis systems for automated grading of astrocytomas are brought closer to clinical practice.     

Mitochondrial Control Region Variability in Mytilus galloprovincialis Populations from the Central-Eastern Mediterranean Sea

The variable domain 1 (VD1) domain of the control region and a small segment of the rrnaL gene of the F mtDNA type were sequenced and analyzed in 174 specimens of Mytilus galloprovincialis. Samples were collected from eight locations in four Central-Eastern (CE) Mediterranean countries (Italy, Croatia, Greece and Turkey). A new primer, specific for the F mtDNA type, was designed for the sequencing procedure. In total 40 different haplotypes were recorded, 24 of which were unique. Aside from the two populations situated in Thermaikos gulf (Northern Aegean, Greece), relatively high levels of haplotype and nucleotide diversity were estimated for both Central and Eastern Mediterranean populations. Eight out of the 40 haplotypes were shared by at least three populations while two of them were found in all populations. Φ_ST and cluster analysis revealed lack of structuring among CE Mediterranean populations with the exception of those located at the Sea of Marmara and Croatian coast which were highly differentiated. Apart from the species’ inherit dispersal ability, anthropogenic activities, such as the repeated translocations of mussel spat, seem to have played an important role in shaping the current genetic population structure of CE M. galloprovincialis mussels.