Quantification of two decades of shallow-water coral reef habitat decline in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary using Landsat data (1984–2002)

The loss of coral reef habitats has been witnessed at a global scale including in the Florida Keys and the Caribbean. In addition to field surveys that can be spatially limited, remote sensing can provide a synoptic view of the changes occurring on coral reef habitats. Here, we utilize an 18-year time series of Landsat 5/TM and 7/ETM+ images to assess changes in eight coral reef sites in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, namely Carysfort Reef, Grecian Rocks, Molasses Reef, Conch Reef, Sombrero Reef, Looe Key Reef, Western Sambo and Sand Key Reef. Twenty-eight Landsat images (1984–2002) were used, with imagery gathered every 2 years during spring, and every 6 years during fall. The image dataset was georectified, calibrated to remote sensing reflectance and corrected for atmospheric and water-column effects. A Mahalanobis distance classification was trained for four habitat classes (‘coral’, ‘sand’, ‘bare hardbottom’ and ‘covered hardbottom’) using in situ ground-truthing data collected in 2003–2004 and using the spectral statistics from a 2002 image. The red band was considered useful only for benthic habitats in depths less than 6 m. Overall mean coral habitat loss for all sites classified by Landsat was 61% (3.4%/year), from a percentage habitat cover of 19% (1984) down to 7.6% (2002). The classification results for the eight different sites were critically reviewed. A detailed pixel by pixel examination of the spatial patterns across time suggests that the results range from ecologically plausible to unreliable due to spatial inconsistencies and/or improbable ecological successions. In situ monitoring data acquired by the Coral Reef Evaluation and Monitoring Project (CREMP) for the eight reef sites between 1996 and 2002 showed a loss in coral cover of 52% (8.7%/year), whereas the Landsat-derived coral habitat areas decreased by 37% (6.2%/year). A direct trend comparison between the entire CREMP percent coral cover data set (1996–2004) and the entire Landsat-derived coral habitat areas showed no significant difference between the two time series (ANCOVA; F-test, p = 0.303, n = 32), despite the different scales of measurements.     

La représentation des causes de l'infériorité économique des québécois francophones.

Studied the causal interpretations of wage disparities among linguistic groups in Québec, assessed the effects of these interpretations on intergroup relations, and examined social and cultural dimensions of causal attributions. Human subjects: 36 male and female French-Canadian adults (university students). 36 male and female English-Canadian adults (university students). Ss' mean age was 21.7 yrs. Ss were given a questionnaire soliciting information on demographic factors and opinions on the importance of various factors in explaining the wage disparity between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians. Two questionnaire forms were used, 1 containing an information sheet on the economic disadvantages of French-speaking Canadians, and 1 without the information sheet. Interpretations of the causes of the economic gap between French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians were evaluated using an analysis of variance (ANOVA) according to language and whether or not the Ss had received the information sheet. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Response of the Rhône deltaic margin to loading and subsidence during the last climatic cycle

Passive continental margin subsidence is initiated by the synrift mechanical stretching of the lithospheric upper brittle layer and continues during the postrift phase; the thermal cooling and contraction of the upwelled asthenosphere forces the margin to subside in addition to the overloads from sea water and sediments. Therefore, the total subsidence in stretched basins includes fault-controlled initial sinking, thermal subsidence and flexural isostatic compensations. Decoupling and estimating the different components of this subsidence from stratigraphic analysis and restricted geophysical and sedimentological databases remains problematic. In particular, backstripping the sediment layers requires a well-constrained geological framework. A method is proposed here to investigate the subsidence history of a margin based on forward stratigraphic modelling. Using the Sedflux model, several experiments are done using generally agreed upon assumptions on the parameters describing lithospheric rheology and isostatic behaviour of a margin. The stratigraphic modelling of the Rhône deltaic margin during the last climatic cycle (125 kyr) provides an assessment of these parameter estimates and their influence on geohistory (tectonic/thermal subsidence and sediment loading). The model results confirm the important impact of water loading on vertical deflection along the platform between glacial low sea-level and interglacial high sea-level. Based on Gulf of Lions (NW Mediterranean) observations, a conceptual method that uses the stratigraphic simulations is produced in order to evaluate the different components of the total subsidence of a margin, and, in particular, the relative impact of tectonic subsidence and sediment load.     

Dogmatisme paternel, niveau socio-économique et performance cognitive de pré-adolescent(e)s.

Studied the association among paternal dogmatism, socioeconomic status (SES), and cognitive development using Piagetian tasks. Human subjects: 98 male and female French-Canadian schoolage children and adolescents (aged 144–171 mo) (1st class of students in the secondary school). 98 male French-Canadian adults (aged 32–62 yrs). All Ss were from 2-parent families and consisted of 50 father–daughter and 48 father–son dyads. Paternal dogmatism was measured using the French-Canadian version of the Rokeach Scale by M. Rokeach (1960). Cognitive levels were evaluated using Piaget and Inhelder"s Permutations Test (1951). Ss" SES was measured using B. R. Blishen and H. A. McRobert"s Socioeconomic Index (1976). The results of the cognitive performance tests were analyzed statistically according to age, sex, dogmatism, and SES, using an analysis of variance (ANOVA). (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scattering on a ring of processors

In this note, we prove that the complexity of scattering in an oriented ring of p processors is (p - 1) (β + Lτ) where L is the length of the messages, β the communication startup, and τ the elemental propagation time.     

Improvement of the in vitro digestible iron and zinc content of okra (Hibiscus esculentus L.) sauce widely consumed in Sahelian Africa

ABSTRACT:  The effects of the formulation (okra, fish, soumbala, extract of wood ash) and cooking time of okra sauce on total iron and zinc content and on their in vitro digestibility were evaluated following a Doehlert uniform shell design with 5 factors and 33 trials. Cooking time had no significant effect on in vitro digestible iron and zinc content, whereas formulation did. Each ingredient had a specific effect. Extract of wood ash, which is a source of soluble and digestible iron and zinc, is a good way of increasing the digestible mineral content of the dish. Okra, the main ingredient in this sauce, has a negative effect and should be added in moderate quantities (< 37.7% of the DM of the sauce). An optimization using the desirability function allows us to identify the optimal recipe that enabled the quantity of digestible iron to be doubled and the quantity of digestible zinc to be increased by one third. This recipe calls for a mixture of 37.7% okra, 26.3% dried fish, 18.5% soumbala, and 3.7% extract of wood ash cooked for 25 min.     

Convolutional Networks with Adaptive Inference Graphs

International Journal of Computer Vision - Do convolutional networks really need a fixed feed-forward structure? What if, after identifying the high-level concept of an image, a network could move...     

Comparative Studies of the Superconducting Properties of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ and Bi1.7Pb0.3Sr2CaCu2O8+δ/Ag Random Composites

We report the results of the study of the resistive transition and the screening effect on similar random composites made of a silver matrix containing sintered superconducting grains of bismuth phase with two different stoichiometries. We show that most of the observed behaviors are compatible with a phenomenological approach in which the intergrain junctions behave as weak links whose the state depends strongly on temperature and field. We find that these links a much weaker in one of the series of samples.