Identification of gaps in mangrove forests with airborne LIDAR

Mangrove forests change frequently due to disturbances from tropical storms, frost, lightning, and insects. It has been suggested that the death and regeneration of trees in small gaps due to lightning may play a critical role in mangrove forest turnover; however, the large-scale quantification of spatial pattern and areas of gaps is lacking for investigating this issue. Airborne light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology provides an effective way for identifying gaps by remotely obtaining direct measurements of ground and canopy elevations. A method based on an alternative sequential filter and black top-hat mathematical morphological transformation was developed to extract gap features. Comparison of identified gap polygons with raw LIDAR measurements and field surveys shows that the proposed method successfully extracted gap features in mangrove forests in Everglades National Park. There are 400–500 lightning gaps per square kilometer in mangrove forests at the study sites. The distribution of gap sizes follows an exponential form and the area of gaps with sizes larger than 100 m² account for 55–61% of the total area of gaps. The area of gaps in the mangrove forest in Everglades National Park is about 4–5% of the total forest area and the average gap formation rate is about 0.3% of the total forest area per year, indicating that lightning gaps play an important role in mangrove forest dynamics.     

Response of captive lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) to different housing conditions: Testing the aggression-density and coping models.

Several studies have suggested that primates react differently to spatial reduction. In this article, the authors tested some general hypotheses on primate response to spatial reduction by studying the Apenheul lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla; Apeldoorn, the Netherlands). The frequency of conflicts did not greatly change between the 2 housing settings, thus not supporting the density- aggression model. Indoor, gorillas performed touching behavior more often and increased their level of reconciliation. These findings support the coping model. Indoor, the gorillas also maintained broader interindividual distances by increasing the levels of sitting alone, avoidance, and dismissing behaviors. In conclusion, the Apenheul gorillas modified selectively the distribution of some patterns typical of their behavioral repertoire in response to a high-density condition. Both avoidance and coping tactics were used, thus revealing high levels of behavioral flexibility in this species. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extensions of LDA by PCA mixture model and class-wise features

Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) is a data discrimination technique that seeks transformation to maximize the ratio of the between-class scatter and the within-class scatter. While it has been successfully applied to several applications, it has two limitations, both concerning the underfitting problem. First, it fails to discriminate data with complex distributions since all data in each class are assumed to be distributed in the Gaussian manner. Second, it can lose class-wise information, since it produces only one transformation over the entire range of classes. We propose three extensions of LDA to overcome the above problems. The first extension overcomes the first problem by modelling the within-class scatter using a PCA mixture model that can represent more complex distribution. The second extension overcomes the second problem by taking different transformation for each class in order to provide class-wise features. The third extension combines these two modifications by representing each class in terms of the PCA mixture model and taking different transformation for each mixture component. It is shown that all our proposed extensions of LDA outperform LDA concerning classification errors for synthetic data classification, hand-written digit recognition, and alphabet recognition.     

A motivational model of rural students' intentions to persist in, versus drop out of, high school.

Using self-determination theory, the authors tested a motivational model to explain the conditions under which rural students formulate their intentions to persist in, versus drop out of, high school. The model argues that motivational variables underlie students' intentions to drop out and that students' motivation can be either supported in the classroom by autonomy-supportive teachers or frustrated by controlling teachers. LISREL analyses of questionnaire data from 483 rural high school students showed that the provision of autonomy support within classrooms predicted students' self-determined motivation and perceived competence. These motivational resources, in turn, predicted students' intentions to persist, versus drop out, and they did so even after controlling for the effect of achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The value of certification: an empirical assessment of the perceptions of end-users of local area networks

Abstract. Certification is one criterion that employers seek when hiring network professionals. Many employers assume a certified network professional is better able to manage networked resources than is a non-certified counterpart. Therefore, employers often offer a monetary premium to attract certified network professionals. By measuring end-user perceptions, the current study empirically assesses the popular industry assumption that certified network professionals are more adept managers of network resources than those individuals who are not certified network professionals. Analyses of a data derived from 299 end-users of 11 separate local area networks indicate no statistically significant difference exists between the capabilities of certified network professionals and non-certified network professionals.     

在线磨辊辊面粗糙度的实验研究

影响轧辊表面粗糙度的因素很多，为此对影响辊面粗糙度的因素进行了系统分析和实验研究，得出了轧辊和砂轮的速度、砂轮粒度、砂轮直径及磨削液等主要因素对轧辊表面粗糙度影响的一般规律。利用回归分析的方法建立了轧辊表面粗糙度的数学模型，并将计算值与实测值进行了比较，发现两者基本一致。此项研究为适时控制冷轧带钢在线磨辊辊面粗糙度提供了计算模型。     

转炉合金最小成本控制模型

介绍了基于合金最小成本的转炉炼钢钢水成分调整模型工应用于宝钢炼钢在线生产控制的情况。模型给出了在满足目标成分等工艺要求下，成本最小的合金投入组合及合金投入量；计算了合金加入钢包后引起钢水温度、重量等的变化，为降低生产成本（合金投入），提高出钢成分控制精度提供了有效的途径。     

热带钢连轧机工作辊温度场和热凸度预报模型

采用一种具有较高精度的样条有限条法对轧制过程中工作辊的温度场和热凸度进行计算和预报。结果证明，该模型理论计算值与现场实测值吻合较好，可以较准确地计算和预报热带钢连轧机工作辊的热凸度。     

Microscale and mesoscale discrete models for dynamic fracture of structures built of brittle material

In this work we present the discrete models for dynamic fracture of structures built of brittle materials. The models construction is based on Voronoi cell representation of the heterogeneous structure, with the beam lattice network used to model the cohesive and compressive forces between the neighboring cells. Each lattice component is a geometrically exact shear deformable beam which can describe large rigid body motion and the most salient fracture mechanisms. The latter can be represented through the corresponding form of the beam constitutive equations, which are derived either at microscale with random distribution of material properties or at a mesoscale with average deterministic values. The proposed models are also placed within the framework of dynamics, where special attention is paid to constructing the lattice network mass matrix as well as the corresponding time-stepping schemes. Numerical simulations of compression and bending tests is given to illustrate the models performance.     

雷达仿真系统中电磁干扰环境的仿真设计和实施

雷达仿真系统是为检测雷达设备的抗干扰能力以及在各种电磁环境下的工作性能而设计的，包括有源干扰和无源干扰的模拟仿真。本文阐述了无源干扰即杂波的散射模型和仿真过程；从同步脉冲干扰的基本原理出发，阐明在雷达工作环境仿真系统中距离拖引、速度拖引、虚假目标等同步脉冲有源干扰的设计和实施过程；并针对工作在搜索和跟踪交替模式下的相控阵雷达提出自适应综合干扰方式；最后分析并总结了系统仿真时为真实、有效地模拟电磁干扰环境应注意的关键问题。