Monitoring herbaceous fuel moisture content with SPOT VEGETATION time-series for fire risk prediction in savanna ecosystems

This paper evaluated the capacity of SPOT VEGETATION time-series to monitor herbaceous fuel moisture content (FMC) in order to improve fire risk assessment in the savanna ecosystem of Kruger National Park in South Africa. In situ herbaceous FMC data were used to assess the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Vegetation Dryness Index (VDI), Improved VDI (IVDI), and Accumulated Relative NDVI Decrement (ARND) during the dry season. The effect of increasing amounts of dead vegetation on the monitoring capacity of derived indices was studied by sampling mixed live and dead FMC. The IVDI was proposed as an improvement of the VDI to monitor herbaceous FMC during the dry season. The IVDI is derived by replacing NDVI with the integrated Relative Vegetation Index (iRVI), as an approximation of yearly herbaceous biomass, when analyzing the 2-dimensional space with NDWI. It was shown that the iRVI offered more information than the NDVI in combination with NDWI to monitor FMC. The VDI and IVDI exhibited a significant relation to FMC with R² of 0.25 and 0.73, respectively. The NDWI, however, correlated best with FMC (R² = 0.75), while the correlation of ARND and FMC was weaker (R² = 0.60) than that found for NDVI, NDWI, and IVDI. The use of in situ herbaceous FMC consequently indicated that NDWI is appropriate as spatio-temporal information source of herbaceous FMC variation which can be used to optimize fire risk and behavior assessment for fire management in savanna ecosystems.     

利用磷灰石裂变径迹定年方法探讨东大别山地区中、新生代构造抬升样式

利用裂变径迹定年方法对东大别山地区进行了磷灰石裂变径迹年龄值和其空间分布样式及对中新生代构造活动示踪意义的初步探讨 ,并改进了传统的径迹统计方法。结果表明 ,研究区磷灰石裂变径迹年龄值为 5 9.4± 3.4— 10 5 .6± 9.8Ma,具有跨度较大以及由东向西趋向增大的特点 ;研究区自 95Ma以来其构造抬升是缓慢且不均匀 ;晓天 -磨子潭断裂中部在第三纪可能有逆冲 ;断裂活动应是该区构造抬升的主要控制因素     

Fast computation of achievable feedback performance in mixed sensitivityH^{∞}design

The computational bottleneck of theH^{infty}design has been recognized to be the "ε-iteration," a computationally demanding direct search of the minimum achievableH^{infty}performance. Verma and Jonckheere showed that the optimalH^{infty}performance can be characterized as the spectral radius of the so-called "Toeplitz plus Hankel" operator. Even before the appearance of the "Toeplitz plus Hankel" operator in theH^{infty}setting, the same operator had already been shown to play a crucial role in the spectral theory of the linear-quadratic problem developed by Jonckheere and Silverman. In this paper, we exploit this common "Toeplitz plus Hankel" operator structure shared by the seemingly unrelated linear-quadratic andH^{infty}problems, and we construct fast state-space algorithms for evaluating the spectral radius of the "Toeplitz plus Hankel" operator. The salient feature of the algorithm is that the spectral radius can be evaluated, with an accuracy predicted by an identifiable error bound, from the antistabilizing solution of the algebraic Riccati equation of the linear-quadratic problem associated with theHinftydesign.     

Flux confinement by artificial arrays and clusters in superconducting films

We have studied the superconducting properties of antidot arrays and mesoscopic antidot clusters near the superconducting-normal phase boundary. Characteristic minima and maxima have been observed in the magnetore-sistance, critical current and phase boundary caused by the formation of stable vortex configurations at the antidots. A comparison with a simple theoretical model has shown that the effects in the arrays as well as in the clusters originate from quantization of the fluxoid at the antidots. This model has enabled an identification of all vortex configurations.     

A simplified approach to Bode's theorem for continuous-time anddiscrete-time systems

A simplified approach to W.H. Bode's (1945) theorem for both continuous-time and discrete-time systems, along with some generalization, are presented. For continuous-time systems, the constraints of open-loop stability and roll-off at s=∝ are removed. A counterexample shows that when the excess poles/zeros vanishes, the Bode integral drops from infinite to finite value when the open-loop gain crosses a critical value. A revised result is also developed. The salient feature of this approach is that at no stage are either Cauchy's theorem or the Poisson integral invoked; the simplified proof relies only on elementary analysis. This approach carries over to the discrete-time cases in a straightforward manner     

On computing the spectral radius of the Hankel plus Toeplitzoperator

The square root of the spectral radius of the Hankel plus Toeplitz operator has been shown to be the achievable performance of the mixed-sensitivity H^∞ design. The computation of the spectral radius is the bottleneck in the synthesis of the H ^∞ controller. In this paper, the spectral properties of the Hankel plus Toeplitz operator are investigated. A finite procedure for computing the spectral radius of the Hankel plus Toeplitz operator is proposed     

Three different group I introns in the nuclear large subunit ribosomal DNA of the amoeboflagellate Naegleria

We have amplified the large subunit ribosomal DNA (LSUrDNA) of the 12 described Naegleria spp. and of 34 other Naegleria lineages that might be distinct species. Two strains yielded a product that is longer than 3 kb, which is the length of the LSUrDNA of all described Naegleria spp. Sequencing data revealed that the insert in one of these strains is a group I intron without an open reading frame (ORF), while the other strain contains two different group I introns, of which the second intron has an ORF of 175 amino acids. In the latter ORF there is a conserved His-Cys box, as in the homing endonucleases present in group I introns in the small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSUrDNA) of Naegleria spp. Although the group I introns in the LSUrDNA differ in sequence, they are more related to each other than they are to the group I introns in the SSUrDNA of Naegleria spp. The three group I introns in the LSUrDNA in Naegleria are at different locations and are probably acquired by horizontal transfer, contrary to the SSUrDNA group I introns in this genus which are of ancestral origin and are transmitted vertically.     

Differences in destruction of cysts of pathogenic and nonpathogenic Naegleria and Acanthamoeba by chlorine

The destructive action of chlorine on the pathogenic Naegleria fowleri and Acanthamoeba culbertsoni, the nonpathogenic N. gruberi, and an avirulent Acanthamoeba isolate was investigated. N fowleri is somewhat more sensitive to chlorine than N. gruberi, whereas the two Acanthamoeba strains are very resistant. This study yields information needed for the destruction of amoebic cysts in drinking water and swimming pools. It also gives some explanation for the occurence of Acanthamoeba strains in these waters.