A systematic investigation of geostatistical image fusion for the improvement of the spectral fidelity and spatial detail in Landsat MS imagery

This is the first systematic investigation into the assumptions of image fusion using regression Kriging (RK) – a geostatistical method – illustrated with Landsat MS (multispectral) and SPOT (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre) panchromatic images. The efficiency of different linear regression and Kriging methods in the fusion process is examined by visual and quantitative indicators. Results indicate a trade-off between spectral fidelity and spatial detail preservation for the GLS (generalized least squares regression) and OLS (ordinary least squares regression) methods in the RK process: OLS methods preserve more spatial detail, while GLS methods retain more spectral information from the MS images but at a greater computational cost. Under either OK (ordinary Kriging) or UK (universal Kriging) with either OLS or GLS, the spherical variogram improves spatial details from the panchromatic image, while the exponential variogram maintains more spectral information from the MS image. Overall, RK-based fusion methods outperform conventional fusion approaches from both the spectral and spatial point of view.     

An Approach for Recovering Distributed System Architectures

Reasoning about software systems at the architectural level is key to effective software development, management, evolution and reuse. All too often, though, the lack of appropriate documentation leads to a situation where architectural design information has to be recovered directly from implemented software artifacts. This is a very demanding process, particularly when involving recovery of runtime abstractions (clients, servers, interaction protocols, etc.) that are typical to the design of distributed software systems. This paper presents an exploratory reverse engineering approach, called X-ray, to aid programmers in recovering architectural runtime information from a distributed system's existing software artifacts. X-ray comprises three domain-based static analysis techniques, namely component module classification, syntactic pattern matching, and structural reachability analysis. These complementary techniques can facilitate the task of identifying a distributed system's implemented executable components and their potential runtime interconnections. The component module classification technique automatically distinguishes source code modules according to the executables components they implement. The syntactic pattern matching technique in turn helps to recognise specific code fragments that may implement typical component interaction features. Finally, the structural reachability analysis technique aids in the association of those features to the code specific for each executable component. The paper describes and illustrates the main concepts underlying each technique, reports on their implementation as a suit of new and off-the-shelf tools, and, to give evidence of the utility of the approach, provides a detailed account of a successful application of the three techniques to help recover a static approximation of the runtime architecture for Field, a publicly-available distributed programming environment.     

Maternally modulated infant separation responses are regulated by D2-family dopamine receptors.

Although dopamine is necessary for mammalian adult pair-bond formation and maternal behavior, its function in infant social behavior and attachment has been less thoroughly explored. The vocalization rate of an isolated rat pup is influenced by recent social contact. Interactions with the dam potentiate vocalization rate. Interactions with littermates or adult males do not. Systemic administration of the D2-family agonist quinpirole specifically blocked maternal potentiation at doses that did not alter vocalization rate in an isolation prior to dam contact. This result was not explained by quinpirole's effects on body temperature or locomotion. The results are consistent with a role for dopamine in infant social behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Open-Source Change Logs

A recent editorial in Empirical Software Engineering suggested that open-source software projects offer a great deal of data that can be used for experimentation. These data not only include source code, but also artifacts such as defect reports and update logs. A common type of update log that experimenters may wish to investigate is the ChangeLog, which lists changes and the reasons for which they were made. ChangeLog files are created to support the development of software rather than for the needs of researchers, so questions need to be asked about the limitations of using them to support research. This paper presents evidence that the ChangeLog files provided at three open-source web sites were incomplete. We examined at least three ChangeLog files for each of three different open-source software products, namely, GNUJSP, GCC-g++, and Jikes. We developed a method for counting changes that ensures that, as far as possible, each individual ChangeLog entry is treated as a single change. For each ChangeLog file, we compared the actual changes in the source code to the entries in the ChangeLog> file and discovered significant omissions. For example, using our change-counting method, only 35 of the 93 changes in version 1.11 of Jikes appear in the ChangeLog file—that is, over 62% of the changes were not recorded there. The percentage of omissions we found ranged from 3.7 to 78.6%. These are significant omissions that should be taken into account when using ChangeLog files for research. Before using ChangeLog files as a basis for research into the development and maintenance of open-source software, experimenters should carefully check for omissions and inaccuracies.     

Development and Preliminary Validation of the Physiological Hyperarousal Scale for Children.

Considerable empirical support exists for the positive affect and negative affect components of the tripartite model of anxiety and depression proposed by L. A. Clark and D. Watson (1991); however, less attention has been paid to the physiological hyperarousal component of the model. The development of the Physiological Hyperarousal Scale for Children (PH-C; J. Laurent, S. J. Catanzaro, & T. E. Joiner Jr., 1995) is described. The psychometric properties of items are examined using students in Grades 6-12 (N = 398). Initial scale validation includes a joint factor analysis with the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C; J. Laurent et al., 1999; J. Laurent, K. Potter, & S. J. Catanzaro, 1994). The relationship between the PH-C and existing measures that tap related constructs is examined. Together, the PH-C and PANAS-C provide a means to assess tripartite model constructs useful in differentiating anxiety and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of anisotropic reflectance on imaging spectroscopy of snow properties

How does snow's anisotropic directional reflectance affect the mapping of snow properties from imaging spectrometer data? This sensitivity study applies two spectroscopy models to synthetic images of the spectral hemispherical-directional reflectance factor (HDRF) with prescribed snow-covered area and snow grain size. The MEMSCAG model determines both sub-pixel snow-covered area and the grain size of the fractional snow cover. The Nolin/Dozier model analyzes the ice absorption feature that spans wavelength λ≅1.03 μm to estimate snow grain radius when the pixel is fully snow-covered. Retrievals of subpixel snow-covered area with MEMSCAG are progressively more sensitive to the HDRF as grain size decreases, solar zenith angle increases, and fractional snow cover increases. The model overestimates snow cover in the forward reflectance angles by up to +20% and underestimates it in the backward reflectance angles by as much as −15%. Grain size retrievals from both MEMSCAG and Nolin/Dozier are more sensitive to anisotropy as grain size and solar zenith angle increase. MEMSCAG retrievals of grain size are insensitive to snow-covered area. The largest inferred grain sizes occur around a peak in the backward reflectance angles and the smallest generally occur at the largest view angles in the forward direction. Retrievals of albedo from MEMSCAG and Nolin/Dozier are similarly sensitive to anisotropy, with albedo errors up to 5% for a 30° solar zenith angle and up to 10% at 60°. The albedo differences between the two models are less than 0.015 for all grain sizes and solar zenith angles.     

Further evidence for mixed emotions.

Emotion theorists have long debated whether valence, which ranges from pleasant to unpleasant states, is an irreducible aspect of the experience of emotion or whether positivity and negativity are separable in experience. If valence is irreducible, it follows that people cannot feel happy and sad at the same time. Conversely, if positivity and negativity are separable, people may be able to experience such mixed emotions. The authors tested several alternative interpretations for prior evidence that happiness and sadness can co-occur in bittersweet situations (i.e., those containing both pleasant and unpleasant aspects). One possibility is that subjects who reported mixed emotions merely vacillated between happiness and sadness. The authors tested this hypothesis in Studies 1–3 by asking subjects to complete online continuous measures of happiness and sadness. Subjects reported more simultaneously mixed emotions during a bittersweet film clip than during a control clip. Another possibility is that subjects in earlier studies reported mixed emotions only because they were explicitly asked whether they felt happy and sad. The authors tested this hypothesis in Studies 4–6 with open-ended measures of emotion. Subjects were more likely to report mixed emotions after the bittersweet clip than the control clip. Both patterns occurred even when subjects were told that they were not expected to report mixed emotions (Studies 2 and 5) and among subjects who did not previously believe that people could simultaneously feel happy and sad (Studies 3 and 6). These results provide further evidence that positivity and negativity are separable in experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Shape deformation in continuous map generalization

Given a collection of regions on a map, we seek a method of continuously altering the regions as the scale is varied. This is formalized and brought to rigor as well-defined problems in homotopic deformation. We ask the regions to preserve topology, area-ratios, and relative position as they change over time. A solution is presented using differential methods and computational geometric techniques. Most notably, an application of this method is used to provide an algorithm to obtain cartograms.