Monitoring the cure of a composite matrix resin with microdielectrometry

This paper presents a study of the cure of glass and graphite fiber epoxy composites using dielectric monitoring techniques. Initial results reported here deal with the neat resin and the relationship between its conductivity and corresponding changes in glass transition temperature during cure.     

Wetland change mapping for the U.S. mid-Atlantic region using an outlier detection technique

Although the impacts of wetland loss are often felt at regional scales, effective planning and management require a comparative assessment of local needs, costs, and benefits. Satellite remote sensing can provide spatially explicit, synoptic land cover change information to support such an assessment. However, a common challenge in conventional remote sensing change detection is the difficulty of obtaining phenologically and radiometrically comparable data from the start and end of the time period of interest. An alternative approach is to use a prior land cover classification as a surrogate for historic satellite data and to examine the self-consistency of class spectral reflectances in recent imagery. We produced a 30-meter resolution wetland change probability map for the U.S. mid-Atlantic region by applying an outlier detection technique to a base classification provided by the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI). Outlier-resistant measures – the median and median absolute deviation – were used to represent spectral reflectance characteristics of wetland class populations, and formed the basis for the calculation of a pixel change likelihood index. The individual scene index values were merged into a consistent region-wide map and converted to pixel change probability using a logistic regression calibrated through interpretation of historic and recent aerial photography. The accuracy of a regional change/no-change map produced from the change probabilities was estimated at 89.6%, with a Kappa of 0.779. The change probabilities identify areas for closer inspection of change cause, impact, and mitigation potential. With additional work to resolve confusion resulting from natural spatial heterogeneity and variations in land use, automated updating of NWI maps and estimates of areal rates of wetland change may be possible. We also discuss extensions of the technique to address specific applications such as monitoring marsh degradation due to sea level rise and mapping of invasive species.     

Radiometric normalization and image mosaic generation of ASTER thermal infrared data: An application to extensive sand sheets and dune fields

Data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) have a significant advantage over previous datasets because of the combination of high spatial resolution (15-90 m) and enhanced multispectral capabilities, particularly in the thermal infrared (TIR) atmospheric window (8-12 μm) of the Earth where common silicate minerals are more easily identified. However, the 60 km swath width of ASTER can limit the effectiveness of accurately tracing large-scale features, such as eolian sediment transport pathways, over long distances. The primary goal of this paper is to describe a method for generating a seamless and radiometrically accurate ASTER TIR mosaic of atmospherically corrected radiance and from that, extract surface emissivity for arid lands, specifically, sand seas. The Gran Desierto in northern Sonora, Mexico was used as a test location for the radiometric normalization technique because of past remote sensing studies of the region, its compositional diversity, and its size. A linear approach was taken to transform adjacent image swaths into a direct linear relationship between image acquisition dates. Pseudo-invariant features (PIFs) were selected using a threshold of correlation between radiance values, and change-pixels were excluded from the linear regression used to determine correction factors. The degree of spectral correlation between overlapping pixels is directly related to the amount of surface change over time; therefore, the gain and offsets between scenes were based only on regions of high spectral correlation. The result was a series of radiometrically normalized radiance-at-surface images that were combined with a minimum of image edge seams present. These edges were subsequently blended to create the final mosaic. The advantages of this approach for TIR radiance (as opposed to emissivity) data include the ability to: (1) analyze data acquired on different dates (with potentially very different surface temperatures) as one seamless compositional dataset; (2) perform decorrelation stretches (DCS) on the entire dataset in order to identify and discriminate compositional units; and (3) separate brightness temperature from surface emissivity for quantitative compositional analysis of the surface, reducing seam-line error in the emissivity mosaic. The approach presented here is valid for any ASTER-related study of large geographic regions where numerous images spanning different temporal and atmospheric conditions are encountered.     

Antireflection coatings for UV radiation obtained by molecular-beam deposition

We have developed fluoride antireflection (AR) coatings on MgF(2) substrates for a wavelength of 248 nm by molecular-beam deposition. Transmission and laser-induced damage threshold of the samples were measured and atomic force microscope (AFM) investigations were carried out. We compare a 14-layer design for AR coatings with sublayer thicknesses of 12 nm with a conventional two-layer design with quarter-wavelength thicknesses. The laser-induced damage threshold of the 14-layer coating is slightly higher than that of the two-layer coating. The AFM surface images show that the 14-layer coating has a smoother surface than the two-layer coating.     

Podcasting in education: Are students as ready and eager as we think they are?

Instructors in higher education are disseminating instructional content via podcasting, as many rally behind the technology’s potential benefits. Others have expressed concern about the risks of deleterious effects that might accompany the adoption of podcasting, such as lower class attendance. Yet, relatively few studies have investigated students’ perceptions of podcasting for educational purposes, especially in relation to different podcasting forms: repetitive and supplemental. The present study explored students’ readiness and attitudes towards these two forms of podcasting to provide fundamental information for future researchers and educators. The results indicated that students may not be as ready or eager to use podcasting for repetitive or supplemental educational purposes as much as we think they are, but they could be persuaded.     

Coherency Hub Design for Multisocket Sun Servers with CoolThreads Technology

CoHub, a coherency hub ASIC, provides a cost-effective way to extend a glueless two-node chip-multithreading system to a four-node system without changes to the processor. The four-node, 256-thread system achieves near-linear scaling of performance with thread count on transaction-processing workloads. Time-to-market pressure, 800-MHz operation, and a six-stage pipeline were among the constraints that shaped CoHub's design.     

An investigation of multiphase CFD modelling of a lateral sloshing tank

A near-resonant, sway-induced sloshing flow in a rectangular tank is used to compare a homogeneous and inhomogeneous multiphase approach for fluid density and viscosity in a commercial CFD code. Dimensional analysis of the relative motion between the phases suggests the application of an inhomogeneous multiphase model whereas previous published work has used the computationally cheaper homogeneous (or average property) approach. The comparison between the computational and experimental results shows that the homogeneous model tends to underestimate the experimental peak pressures by up to 50%. The inhomogeneous multiphase model gives good agreement with the experimental pressure data. Examination of the relative velocity at the fluid interface confirms that the inhomogeneous model is the appropriate model to use for the simulation of a violent sloshing flow.     

Integrating airborne multispectral imagery and airborne LiDAR data for enhanced lithological mapping in vegetated terrain

Practical and financial constraints associated with traditional field-based lithological mapping are often responsible for the generation of maps with insufficient detail and inaccurately located contacts. In arid areas with well exposed rocks and soils, high-resolution multi- and hyperspectral imagery is a valuable mapping aid as lithological units can be readily discriminated and mapped by automatically matching image pixel spectra to a set of reference spectra. However, the use of spectral imagery in all but the most barren terrain is problematic because just small amounts of vegetation cover can obscure or mask the spectra of underlying geological substrates. The use of ancillary information may help to improve lithological discrimination, especially where geobotanical relationships are absent or where distinct lithologies exhibit inherent spectral similarity. This study assesses the efficacy of airborne multispectral imagery for detailed lithological mapping in a vegetated section of the Troodos ophiolite (Cyprus), and investigates whether the mapping performance can be enhanced through the integration of LiDAR-derived topographic data. In each case, a number of algorithms involving different combinations of input variables and classification routine were employed to maximise the mapping performance. Despite the potential problems posed by vegetation cover, geobotanical associations aided the generation of a lithological map - with a satisfactory overall accuracy of 65.5% and Kappa of 0.54 - using only spectral information. Moreover, owing to the correlation between topography and lithology in the study area, the integration of LiDAR-derived topographic variables led to significant improvements of up to 22.5% in the overall mapping accuracy compared to spectral-only approaches. The improvements were found to be considerably greater for algorithms involving classification with an artificial neural network (the Kohonen Self-Organizing Map) than the parametric Maximum Likelihood Classifier. The results of this study demonstrate the enhanced capability of data integration for detailed lithological mapping in areas where spectral discrimination is complicated by the presence of vegetation or inherent spectral similarities.     

A well-based reverse-phase protein array applicable to extracts from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue

Proteomic analysis of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue offers significant diagnostic utility but is complicated due to the high level of covalently crosslinked proteins arising from formalin fixation. To address these challenges, we developed a reliable protein extraction method for FFPE tissue, based on heat-induced antigen retrieval within a pressure cooker. The protein extraction yield from archival FFPE tissue section is approximately 90% of that recovered from frozen tissue. This method demonstrates preservation of immunoreactivity and recovery of full-length proteins by Western blotting. Additionally, we developed a well-based RP protein array platform utilizing an electrochemiluminescence detection system. Protein samples derived from FFPE tissue by means of laser capture dissection, with as few as 500 shots demonstrate measurable signal differences for different proteins. The lysates coated to the array plate, remain stable over 1?month at room temperature. Theses data suggest that this new protein-profiling platform coupled with the protein extraction method can be used for molecular profiling analysis in FFPE tissue, and contribute to the validation and development of biomarkers in clinical studies.