Feature-based Groundwater Hydrograph Clustering Using Unsupervised Self-Organizing Map-Ensembles

Hydrograph clustering helps to identify dynamic patterns within aquifers systems, an important foundation of characterizing groundwater systems and their influences, which is necessary to effectively manage groundwater resources. We develope an unsupervised modeling approach to characterize and cluster hydrographs on regional scale according to their dynamics. We apply feature-based clustering to improve the exploitation of heterogeneous datasets, explore the usefulness of existing features and propose new features specifically useful to describe groundwater hydrographs. The clustering itself is based on a powerful combination of Self-Organizing Maps with a modified DS2L-Algorithm, which automatically derives the cluster number but also allows to influence the level of detail of the clustering. We further develop a framework that combines these methods with ensemble modeling, internal cluster validation indices, resampling and consensus voting to finally obtain a robust clustering result and remove arbitrariness from the feature selection process. Further we propose a measure to sort hydrographs within clusters, useful for both interpretability and visualization. We test the framework with weekly data from the Upper Rhine Graben System, using more than 1800 hydrographs from a period of 30 years (1986-2016). The results show that our approach is adaptively capable of identifying homogeneous groups of hydrograph dynamics. The resulting clusters show both spatially known and unknown patterns, some of which correspond clearly to external controlling factors, such as intensive groundwater management in the northern part of the test area. This framework is easily transferable to other regions and, by adapting the describing features, also to other time series-clustering applications.

     

Nucleating activity of the quinacridone and phthalocyanine pigments in polypropylene crystallization

The nucleating ability of two organic pigments, quinacridone and phthalocyanine, in nonisothermal polypropylene (PP) crystallization was investigated. The investigations were carried out using DSC and polarizing microscopy. The efficiency of pigments in the nucleation process was determined in a simple test comparing the crystallization temperature of the PP‐containing pigments with respect to the pure polymer. Both pigments revealed good nucleating activity. In the presence of pigments the increment of the crystallization temperature and the increase of nucleation rate were observed. The nucleating efficiency of pigments was confirmed in investigations of the obtained structure. The nucleating activity of pigments was explained by their features fulfilling several requirements for good nucleating agents. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 3957–3964, 2003     

Poland and United States Collaborative Study on Cardiovascular Epidemiology. A comparison of HDL cholesterol and its subfractions in populations covered by the United States Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study and the Pol-MONICA Project

HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) levels are inversely related to coronary heart disease (CHD) risk, and HDL-C distributions vary among countries. Poland is one of the few developed countries in which CHD rates are increasing at the same time that US rates have been falling, but whether these differences are explained by differences in risk factors such as HDL-C has not been determined. To examine this possibility, levels of HDL-C and its subfractions were compared in US and Polish urban and rural men and women aged 45 to 64 years. Age-adjusted HDL-C means were 0.20 mmol/L higher in urban Polish men and 0.37 mmol/L higher in rural Polish men than in their US counterparts (P < .0001); means in urban Polish women were 0.06 mmol/L higher (P < .05) and in rural Polish women 0.09 mmol/L higher (P < .001) than in their US counterparts. Adjustment for age, education, alcohol intake, smoking, BMI, heart rate, and menopause status (in women) had little effect on differences. Means of HDL2 and HDL3 levels showed similar between-country differences, although differences were minimal for HDL2 in urban men and women, and HDL3 means did not differ between rural women. BMI was inversely related to HDL-C and both subfractions in all gender-country-site strata (P < .001), and alcohol was directly related to HDL-C (P < .001) in all strata except Polish women. Cigarette smoking was negatively related to HDL-C and both subfractions in all US samples except HDL2 in urban men, whereas in Polish samples, significant associations were found only in urban women for HDL-C and in rural and urban women for HDL3. Age, heart rate, and education showed inconsistent or no association with HDL-C and its subfractions in either country. This profile of HDL-C and its subfractions in Polish samples contrasts sharply with the opposite trend in CHD mortality rates, which suggests either that other risk factors may account for the trends or that the relationship between HDL-C and CHD may differ between the two countries.     

Psychrotrophic Clostridium spp. associated with 'blown pack' spoilage of chilled vacuum-packed red meats and dog rolls in gas-impermeable plastic casings

'Blown pack' spoilage of vacuum-packed chilled beef, lamb and venison, and of a cooked meat product, chilled dog rolls packed in an oxygen-impermeable plastic casing, was characterised by sensory, chemical and microbiological analysis. Investigation of the probable causative agents led to the isolation of eight strains of psychrotrophic clostridia. Three strains have been provisionally identified as C. difficile, C. beijerinckii and C. lituseburense; the other five remain unidentified. In inoculation studies only one isolate produced significant amount of gas on meat, causing pack 'blowing'. It is, therefore, possible that 'blown pack' spoilage involves a synergism with one or more other organisms.     

High‐Sensitivity Real‐Time Analysis of Nanoparticle Toxicity in Green Fluorescent Protein‐Expressing Zebrafish

Gold nanoparticles (AuNP) show great potential for diagnostic and therapeutic application in humans. A great number of studies have tested the cytotoxicity of AuNP using cell culture. There is, however, an urgent need to test AuNP in vertebrate animal models that interrogate biodistribution and complex biological traits like organ development, whole body metabolism, and cognitive function. The sheer number of different compounds precludes the use of small rodent model for initial screening. The extended fish embryo test (FET) is used here to bridge the gap between cell culture and small animal models. A study on the toxicity of ultrasmall AuNP in wild type and transgenic zebrafish is presented. FET faithfully reproduce all important findings of a previous study in HeLa cells and add new important information on teratogenicity and hepatotoxicity that could not be gained from studying cultured cells.     

Highly efficient CO2 sorbents: development of synthetic, calcium-rich dolomites

The reaction of CaO with CO(2) is a promising approach for separating CO(2) from hot flue gases. The main issue associated with the use of naturally occurring CaCO(3), that is, limestone, is the rapid decay of its CO(2) capture capacity over repeated cycles of carbonation and calcination. Interestingly, dolomite, a naturally occurring equimolar mixture of CaCO(3) and MgCO(3), possesses a CO(2) uptake that remains almost constant with cycle number. However, owing to the large quantity of MgCO(3) in dolomite, the total CO(2) uptake is comparatively small. Here, we report the development of a synthetic Ca-rich dolomite using a coprecipitation technique, which shows both a very high and a stable CO(2) uptake over repeated cycles of calcination and carbonation. To obtain such an excellent CO(2) uptake characteristic it was found to be crucial to mix the Ca(2+) and Mg(2+) on a molecular level, that is, within the crystalline lattice. For sorbents which were composed of mixtures of microscopic crystals of CaCO(3) and MgCO(3), a decay behavior similar to natural limestone was observed. After 15 cycles, the CO(2) uptake of the best sorbent was 0.51 g CO(2)/g sorbent exceeding the CO(2) uptake of limestone by almost 100%.     

Recall of picture books by 3-year-old children: Testing and repetition effects in joint reading activities.

Parents use a variety of didactic techniques when they read to their preschool children, but little is known about which techniques are useful for different aspects of book learning. In our study 72 3-year-old children were read two picture books in their homes. Joint reading activities allowed planned comparisons of the effects of rereading and testing for recall during the second presentation of a book. An additional between-subject variable was whether the researcher or the child pointed to items to be remembered; the different books served as a within-subject variable. The dependent measure was memories of book items when the child was asked to anticipate events from page to page. There was little evidence that these memories were strengthened by the child's pointing during reading, but testing for recall and rereading the book were found to be effective for teaching the content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A novel inversion method to determine the mass distribution of non-refractory coatings on refractory black carbon using a centrifugal particle mass analyzer and single particle soot photometer

A novel inversion method is presented, which derives the two-variable number distribution for black carbon aerosol, using a coupled centrifugal particle mass analyzer (CPMA) and single particle soot photometer (SP2). The CPMA classifies all particles by their mass-to-charge ratio, and the SP2 detects the mass of refractive black carbon (rBC) in each individual particle. The results of the inversion are the simultaneous number distributions of both rBC mass and total particle mass. Using the distribution, the coating distribution on a population of rBC particles can be identified visually. Furthermore, the distribution can be integrated to find one-variable mass and number concentration distributions as a function of total or rBC particle mass. These capabilities were demonstrated via smog chamber experiments, where an organic (non-rBC) coating was grown onto uncoated rBC aerosol over several hours via photo-oxidation of p-xylene. The particle distributions were constructed using the inversion over a range of 1–60 fg of total particle mass. As the non-rBC coating thickness increased over time, a shift in the number distribution toward higher total mass was observed. At the end of the experiment, uncoated rBC was injected into the chamber, and the distribution was clearly resolved using the inversion. The CPMA-SP2 method offers several advantages over “SP-2 only” methods, namely, (i) coating mass information can be obtained over a wider range of total particle mass, (ii) total particle mass is measured directly, and (iii) it does not make core–shell morphology assumptions.

Copyright © 2018 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Bias-adjusted estimation in the ARX(1) model

A new point estimator for the AR(1) coefficient in the linear regression model with arbitrary exogenous regressors and stationary AR(1) disturbances is developed. Its construction parallels that of the median-unbiased estimator, but uses the mode as a measure of central tendency. The mean-adjusted estimator is also considered, and saddlepoint approximations are used to lower the computational burden of all the estimators. Large-scale simulation studies for assessing their small-sample properties are conducted. Their relative performance depends almost exclusively on the value of the autoregressive parameter, with the new estimator dominating over a large part of the parameter space.