Estimation of yellow starthistle abundance through CASI-2 hyperspectral imagery using linear spectral mixture models

The invasive weed yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) has infested between 4 and 6 million hectares in California. It often forms dense infestations and rapidly depletes soil moisture, preventing the establishment of other species. Precise assessment of its canopy cover, especially low-density abundance in the earlier growing season, is the key to effective management. Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager 2 (CASI-2) hyperspectral imagery was acquired at the western edge of California's Central Valley grasslands on July 15, 2003. Four linear spectral mixture models (LSMM) were investigated from the original CASI-2 data. Band selections based upon residual analysis and feature extraction (PCA) were further explored to reduce the data dimension. All approaches, except four band-selection unconstrained LSMMs, provide consistent results. The uncertainty of the PCA-based LSMM was estimated through a Monte-Carlo simulation. The maximum standard deviation was approximately 11%. The results suggest that unmixing CASI-2 imagery could be used for estimating and mapping yellow starthistle for larger regional areas.     

Demand-driven logic simulation using a network of loosely coupled processors

Logic simulation is used extensively in the design of digital systems for the purpose of studying the behaviour of circuits under various conditions and for verifying the required performance of circuits. There is considerable interest in methods which reduce the simulation time during the design process. In this paper, we investigate how this can be achieved by simulating the action of logic circuits using a network of loosely coupled processors. Circuits modelled as directed graphs comprising clocked sequential components and (unclocked) arbitrary combinational logic gates can be partitioned into separate tasks each consisting of a sequential component with an associated network of combinational components. We present cost functions for evaluating a task subject to probabilistic assumptions about the functioning of the circuits. The circuit evaluation method used in the simulation process is significant. We apply lazy evaluation, a demand-driven evaluation strategy in which signals in the circuit are evaluated on a ‘need to do' basis, resulting in a considerable saving in circuit simulation time. We achieve distributed logic simulation using a network of workstations and show from experimental results that by using such a configuration, we essentially obtain a single computation engine which can be used to obtain speedups in circuit simulation when compared with uniprocessor simulation systems. Interprocess communications between tasks on different workstations proceed via remote procedure calls while local communications between tasks take place via shared memory. The method of partitioning used in the circuit model ensures that communications between tasks take place only at defined times in the simulation sequence.     

Conical Boron Nitride Nanorods Synthesized Via the Ball-Milling and Annealing Method

A boron nitride (BN) nanostructure, conical BN nanorod, has been synthesized in a large quantity on Si substrates for the first time via the ball-milling and annealing method. Nitridation of milled boron carbide (B₄C) powders was performed in nitrogen gas at 1300°C on the surface of the substrates to form the BN nanorods. The highly crystallized nanorods consist of conical BN basal layers stacked along the nanorod axis. Ball milling of the B₄C powders can significantly enhance the nitridation of the powders and thus facilitate the formation of nanorods during the annealing process.     

Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p57KIP2 in soft tissue sarcomas and Wilms'tumors

Mammalian cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors fall into two families, the INK4 and the CIP/KIP. The CIP/KIP family comprises three structurally related members, including p21CiP1/WAF1, p27KIP1, and p57KIP2. These proteins are all capable of inhibiting the progression of the cell cycle by binding and inhibiting G(1) cyclin/cyclin-dependent kinase complexes. In humans, p57KIP2 is expressed specifically in skeletal muscle, heart, brain, kidney, and lung. Human KIP2 resides in 11p15.5, a chromosomal region that is a common site for loss of heterozygosity in certain sarcomas, Wilms' tumors, and tumors associated with the Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome. Because of the function, selective expression, and chromosomal location of p57KIP2, we undertook the present study to search for potential mutations of KIP2 in a cohort of 126 tumors composed of 75 soft tissue sarcomas and 51 Wilms' tumors. The KIP2 gene was characterized by Southern blot, comparative multiplex PCR, PCR -single-strand conformational polymorphism, and DNA sequencing assays in these neoplasms. Deletions of the KIP2 gene or point mutations at the region encoding the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitory domain were not found in the tumors analyzed. The absence of KIP2 mutations might indicate that these tumors arise due to defects at a closely linked but separate locus. Alternatively, similarly to the mouse homologue, inactivation of KIP2 could occur via genomic imprinting.     

Signatures: A language extension for improving type abstraction and subtype polymorphism in C++

C++ uses inheritance as a substitute for subtype polymorphism. We give examples where this makes the type system too inflexible. We then describe a conservative language extension that allows a programmer to define an abstract type hierarchy independent of any implementation hierarchies, to retroactively abstract over an implementation, and to decouple subtyping from inheritance. This extension gives the user more of the flexibility of dynamic typing while retaining the efficiency and security of static typing. With default implementations and views flexible mechanisms are provided for implementing an abstract type by different concrete class types. We first show how the language extension can be implemented in a preprocessor to a C++ compiler, and then detail and analyse the efficiency of an implementation we directly incorporated in the GNU C++ compiler.     

Thermal properties of an epoxide resin cured with bicyclo Diels-Alder anhydride adducts

The thermal properties of polymers derived from resorcinol diglycidyl ether cured with several bicyclo Diels-Alder anhydride adducts have been investigated. Increased char yields and decreased rates of weight loss were observed for these systems as compared to polymers cured by Diels–Alder adducts from acyclic dienes. This is explained on the basis of a reverse Diels-Alder reaction which these bicyclo adducts undergo at lower temperatures than do adducts from acyclic dienes.     

Convention note.

Presents information about the 1968 Convention of the American Psychological Association, held in San Francisco, California. Information includes the names of committee chairmen, committee members, and volunteers who assisted at the Convention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coal liquids distillation tower corrosion: chloride analysis of solvent refined coal process samples

Severe chloride corrosion incidents have occurred in the distillation area of major direct coal liquefaction plants. Chloride analyses have been carried out for samples collected at various process streams of one of these plants (the Wilsonville, Alabama SRC-1 pilot plant) in order to define the pathway of corrosive species to the distillation area. These analyses show that the major fraction of the chloride in the atmospheric distillation tower is carried there in the higher-boiling process streams. The chloride level at a particular point in the atmospheric distillation tower may be several times that of the tower feed liquid; this concentration contributes to the catastrophic corrosion experienced in these towers. This chloride concentration provides an explanation for the occurrence of the corrosion in the last distillation tower in the process stream, rather than in the tower(s) first contacted by the chloride containing distillate stream. It also accounts for the observed localization of the corrosion within narrow regions of the atmospheric distillation tower. The chloride concentration and the chloride pathway are factors which designers of coal liquefaction distillation processes need to consider in a design that will keep corrosion to a manageable level.     

Numerical determination of the parity-condition parameter for lanchester-type equations of modern warfare

This paper presents a simple numerical procedure for determining the parity-condition parameter for deterministic Lanchester-type combat between two homogeneous forces. Deterministic differentialequation combat models are commonly used in parametric studies for computational reasons, since they give essentially the same results for the mean course of combat as do corresponding stochastic attrition models. The combat studied in this paper is modelled by Lanchester-type equations of modern warfare with time-dependent attrition-rate coefficients. Previous research has generalized Lanchester's classic “square law” to such variable-coefficient combat. It has shown that the prediction of battle outcome (in particular, force annihilation) without having to spend the time and effort of computing force-level trajectories depends on a single parameter, the so-called parity-condition parameter, which is “the enemy force equivalent of a friendly force of unit strength” and depends on only the attrition-rate coefficients. Unfortunately, previous research did not show generally how to determine this parameter. We present general theoretical considerations for its numerical noniterative determination. This general theory is applied to an important class of attrition-rate coefficients (offset power-rate coefficients). Our results allow one to study such variable-coefficient combat models almost as easily and thoroughly as Lanchester's classic constant-coefficient model.